10 Myths about Information and Information Seeking

In Donald O. Case's (2007) Looking for Information, he introduces readers to Professor Brenda Dervin from Ohio State University and her list of the 10 "dubious assumptions" related to information and information seeking. Although this "top ten" does indeed deal with information seeking, it still remains pertinent to information retrieval, and so I include here, for our reading pleasure:

1. Only 'objective' information is valuable.
"For most tasks and decisions in life, people tends to settle for the first satisfactory solution to a problem, rather than the best solution" (p. 8).

2. More information is always better.
"Typically there is not a problem getting enough information but rather with interpreting and understanding what information there is" (p. 8).

3. Objective information can be transmitted out of context.
"But people tend to ignore isolated facts when they cannot form a complete picture of them" (p.8).

4. Information can only be acquired through formal sources.
"This assumption, often made by those in educational institutions, flies in the face of actual behavior" (p.8). (Ouch!)

5. There is relevant information for every need.
"The truth is that mere information cannot satisfy many human needs" (p.8).

6 Every need situation has a solution.
"But sometimes the client is looking for something -- a reassurance, and understanding -- that does not come in the shape of a canned response" (p.8-9).

7. It is always possible to make information available or accessible.
"Formal information systems are limited in what they can accomplish, at least where the vague, ambiguous, and constantly changing needs of the public are concerned" (p. 9).

8. Functional units of information, such as books or TV programs, always fit the needs of the individual.
"But the 'functional units' of the individual are not often these things; rather, they are responses, solutions, instructions, ideas, friendships, and so forth" (p. 9).

9. Time and space -- individual situations -- can be ignored in addressing information seeking and use.
"Yet it is often the individual's definition of the situation that shapes his or her needs as much as the 'real' situation itself" (p. 9).

10. People make easy, conflict-free connections between external information and their internal reality.
"We lack understanding about how people inform themselves, how they make connections over time, the sense they make of their world between significant events" (p. 9).

Case, O.D. (2007). Introduction. In Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (pp. 1-13). London: Academic Press.