Low-Effort Information Searching: The Heuristic Information-Seeking Toolkit. Issue 4 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schwieder, David
• Is Part Of: Behavioral & social sciences librarian. Volume 35:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 171
• Page End: 187
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: Google -- Google scholar -- heuristics -- information seeking -- principle of least effort; Social science libraries -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; 026.30005
• DOI: 10.1080/01639269.2017.1289019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-9269

Abstract

ABSTRACT: How do academic library users search for scholarly information? While there are many possible ways, research from several scholarly fields offers a useful perspective; studies from social psychology, economics, and library and information science suggest that users will often favor "low-effort" information-seeking approaches. Though many academic librarians undoubtedly advocate efficient information-seeking strategies, we argue that development of a more systematic and coordinated low-effort approach would be beneficial. Accordingly, this article offers an organized "toolkit" of low-effort information-seeking strategies suitable for self-use by library patrons or inclusion in library instruction programs.