Faculty Use of the World Wide Web: Modeling Information Seeking Behavior in a Digital Environment Page: 40
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dislikes), subjective norms (susceptibility to influence by others' opinions), and
intentions (what one plans to do) modified one's beliefs into observable behaviors and
actions. This model did provide some potential for understanding a relationship between
faculty members beliefs about on-line public access library catalogs, electronic databases,
and Internet related resources as contrasted with their actual usage of these on-line
resources. The model could also be used to study the types of assignments faculty
members require students to do in relation to their recommendations on using library
related research tools and on-line information access tools.
Anthropology Models
Two researchers adopted the anthropology models of hunting and foraging to
describe faculty members behavior in searching for information. Sandstrom (1999, 1998,
& 1994) employed the "optimal foraging approach" from evolutionary ecology to
describe the information seeking behaviors of scholars. Anthropologists used optimal
foraging "to analyze dietary choices, habitat usage, group size and settlement, and time
allocation among human hunter-gathers" (1994, p. 415). There were three choice areas
from optimal foraging applicable to understanding faculty members' information seeking
behaviors. The first was "prey choice and diet breadth." Most scholars "seek a steady diet
of information of particular types, searching more extensively or further afield in times of
scarcity, focusing more narrowly when information seems abundant.. ." (p. 427). The
second area was "time allocation and patch choice" (pp. 431-435). The scholar's territory
was the home institution and academic discipline area. In turn, many scholars felt it was
more timely to exploit personal library collections for needed information than allocating40
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Fortin, Maurice G. Faculty Use of the World Wide Web: Modeling Information Seeking Behavior in a Digital Environment, dissertation, December 2000; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2723/m1/47/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .