Information seeking and information retrieval : The core of the information curriculum?

Based on a project to consider a Europe-wide library/information curriculum, this paper analyzes the area of information seeking and retrieval in the wider context of human information behavior. It outlines a series of twenty-eight topics and three perspectives which may be used for curriculum design. It is suggested that this area, together with knowledge organization and (possibly) information literacy, forms the core of the curriculum. Introduction The content of this paper derives from a larger project – LIS Education in Europe: Joint Curriculum Development and Bologna Preparation Project-supported by the European Union’s SOCRATES/ERASMUS funding, and coordinated by the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research (EUCLID). This addressed the need for consideration of the library and information science (LIS) curriculum in light of the Bologna process, which promotes harmonization in higher education systems throughout Europe. Although the focus of the project was on curricula for higher education, some of the topics and themes dealt with – including this one – are also applicable to design of shorter courses for in-service training and for continuing professional development (CPD). The overall aim of the project was to deal with the whole of the LIS curriculum, and this was done through twelve workgroups. This paper draws from work done on topic 4: information seeking and information retrieval (IS&R). It is not possible to specify a single curriculum for any particular course covering such a wide area. Rather, we have sought to enumerale a list of topics from which such a course – whether it be for formal education, workplace training, or continuing professional development – may be constructed, and to analyze and present the paradigms, perspectives and relationships which may be applied in order to carry out the construction of a coherent and rational curriculum. The results of the LIS-EU project have been reported in full in an e-book edited by Kajberg and L0rring, and discussions of the IS&R topic have also appeared.1,2,3 This paper does not seek to repeat these reports. Rather, it offers a personal reflection on them, in particular on their significance for the idea of a core curriculum for LIS, based on the interaction of the IS&R topic with other parts of the curriculum, most particularly knowledge organization. The Topic and Its Boundaries Following Sparck Jones and Willett, we may regard information retrieval as “the purposeful searching for information in a system, of whatever kind, in which information – whether in the form of documents, or their surrogates, or factual material (‘information itself), are stored and represented.”4 Information seeking may be understood as “the purposeful activities of looking for information to meet a need, solve a problem, or increase understanding,” while human information behavior can be regarded as “all aspects of behavior with respect to interaction with, and use of, all forms of information and knowledge, through all sources, channels and media, including informal and unrecorded communication.”5 There is clearly a strong link between these three ideas. Information retrieval is a specific, information system focused, aspect of information seeking, while the latter is itself a purposive aspect of human information behavior. These relationships are illustrated in Wilson’s nested model.6 The widest outermost layer is human information behavior. Within this, as a subset of information behavior, is information seeking. Within this, the innermost layer is information retrieval, a specific form of information seeking. Neither of the two inner layers can be understood without some appreciation of the layer outside them. For curriculum design purposes, therefore, it is necessary to consider all three of these topics together in an integrated whole. This is not to say that all must be given equal attention.