Using History to Study Information Seeking Behavior

Abstract

has focused on approaches that provide a snapshot in time of what is going on in a household. This poster explores the use of history to examine changes over time in both information questions and information sources used in the prosecution of everyday life activities in America. The study is based on identifying endogenous and exogenous forces to the activity at hand, and seeing how these forces cause change. A secondary question raised in this poster is the largely unexamined belief that the Internet has played an exceptional role in changing the nature of everyday information seeking behavior in America. The case of 100 years of car buying in America is used as a particular example, drawn from a larger study of nine everyday American activities.