Information Behavior An Evolutionary Instinct
Information behavior has emerged as an important aspect of human life, however our knowledge and understanding of it is incomplete and underdeveloped scientifically. Research on the topic is largely contemporary in focus and has generally not incorporated
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Editor-in-Chief J. Mackenzie Owen Editorial Board M. Bates P. Bruza R. Capurro E. Davenport R. Day M. Hedstrom A.M. Paci C. Tenopir M. Thelwall
For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6159
Amanda Spink
Information Behavior An Evolutionary Instinct
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Professor Amanda Spink Chair in Information Science Department of Information Science Loughborough University Ashby Road, Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3TU United Kingdom [email protected]
ISSN 1568-1300 ISBN 978-3-642-11496-0 e-ISBN 978-3-642-11497-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-11497-7 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920730 ACM Computing Classification (1998): K.4, K.3 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd., Pondicherry Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated to Peter for his love and support
Foreword
This book is a synthesis of the information dimension of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. It is based on a premise that information behavior is a crucial everyday human activity for all humans since the early days of human evolution. It addresses a number of fundamental questions not only scientific but also philosophical and hypothetical. In that sense, the book is an invitation for further research in a number of fields. Of course, any discourse about human information behavior raises the obvious question: But what is information to start with? It is a basic question on the same level as: What is energy? What is matter? What is life? As such, the question is very hard to answer, although it was addressed in numerous fields from physics, biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, electrical engineering and psychology to philosophy, economics, and humanities. Each field brought its own context and orientation to sought answers. Dictionary definitions, such as “Information: Knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject, or event; that of which one is apprised or told; intelligence, news. spec. contrasted with data” (or even “Divine instruction, inspiration”) provide a lexical description of the meaning of the
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