Open AccessModeling individual‐level information behavior: A person‐in‐environment (PIE) framework
Author(s) -
Sin SeiChing Joanna
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.14504701034
Subject(s) - structural equation modeling , information behavior , computer science , information system , empirical research , economic shortage , data science , key (lock) , knowledge management , human–computer interaction , government (linguistics) , statistics , engineering , mathematics , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , machine learning , electrical engineering
This paper has two goals: (1) to introduce the Person‐in‐Environment (PIE) framework, which the author developed to measure the relative impacts of socio‐structural and individual factors on individual information behavior; and (2) to demonstrate PIE's applicability. An empirical study on the factors of students' library usage is presented. PIE addresses a research gap in the information behavior area—the shortage of societal‐level research. In PIE, individual factors (e.g., cognitive and affective) and socio‐structural factors (e.g., information resources distribution) are conceptualized as inter‐related. Thus, they need to be tested simultaneously with a multivariate method such as structural equation modeling (SEM). Previously, it was difficult to link individual and socio‐structural factors. This is because their units of observation often vary. This author proposes linking diverse datasets with geographic information systems (GIS), using spatial location as the key. The PIE framework can contribute to theoretical and methodological discussions in information behavior research. It also offers scholars and policymakers a way to empirically assess the contributions of information services.