The impact of mobile tablet devices on human information behaviour
| Pages | 622-639 |
| Published date | 08 July 2014 |
| Date | 08 July 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2012-0123 |
| Author | Sally Burford,Sora Park |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management |
The impact of mobile tablet
devices on human information
behaviour
Sally Burford and Sora Park
Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – Mobile computing devices are a significant access point for information activities.
Theories and models of human information behaviour have developed over several decades but have
not considered the role of the user’s computing device in digital information interactions. The purpose
of this paper is to explore the information behaviours of young adults when they are given unlimited
access to mobile tablet devices.
Design/methodology/approach – As information tasks, behaviours and communities shift into
digital environments, a researcher of these phenomena is required to mirror that movement with
techniques that allow a full exploration of human behaviour and interaction in the online world.
Following Kozinets (2009), “netnography” (ethnography in online communities) is applied in this study
and all data are collected online from within a community of iPad users, established for the research
purpose.
Findings – This study reveals that access to mobile tablet devices creates significant shifts in the
behaviours of young adults whose lives are immersed in digital information. Mobile tablet devices
establish the potential for constant access to digital information and that opportunity is grasped by
the participants in this research. Extensive use of mobile device applications or “apps” establishes
a more selected and restricted view of information than that encountered in the open and expansive
World Wide Web.
Originality/value – This paper invites extension to human information behaviour theories and
models to include a consideration of computing access device and of new mobility and constancy of
access – all of which changes the circumstances and behaviour of the information actor.
Keywords Human information behaviour, Netnography, Mobile tablet device
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This research is situated within a well-accepted societal truism; the information age.
Significantly enabled by the world wide web, “Information has become a key trading
currency in many different commercial and social contexts” (Gunter, 2008, p. 195) and
“electronic information represents the substrate of much daily life” (Wu, 2010, p. 319).
In a more recent trend, mobile technologies including tablet devices, have proliferated
and provide alternative means of access and engagement with digital information.
Tablet devices received little commercial attention until the year 2010 when iPads
became popular. They are typified as lightweight, flat and por table computing
technology that can be connected to the inter net. Mobile tablets have multi-media
functions equivalent to personal computers and interfaces that integrate input by
touch and output display in one screen. The characteristics that differentiate tablet
devices from other types of computing devices are that they are compact and light
and thus easy to transport, and have an interface capable of integrating all input and
output. They are frequently positioned as an extension of a desktop computer or
as a complementary computing device. Public use of the device, especially in the work
environment, is increasingly acceptable (Park, 2012).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
Received 25 September 2012
Revised 31 May 2013
Accepted 17 June 2013
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 70 No. 4, 2014
pp. 622-639
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/J D-09-2012-0123
622
JDOC
70,4
Inherent in the mobile tablet device is its portability, and, when full network access
is also available, a constant connection to digital information is ensured. That
continual connection, enabled by wireless technology, shifts the environments and
circumstances of the information actor. Whilst human information behaviour models
have incorporated notions of interface and/o r system, little consideration has been
given to individual access device. In a period of relative stability when widespread use
of desktop and laptop reigned, individual computing device could reasonably be
considered a constant. This study looks at how providing unlimited access to a new
mobile tablet device might alter the behaviour of the information actor. It seeks to
insert the notion of access device into human information behaviour inquiry at a time
when great attention is given to networked mobile devices of various dimensions.
The term human information behaviour is purp osely adopted to cast a broad net for
the exploratory nature of this study. Human information behaviour traditionally
provides an umbrella term for the activ ity and the motivations involved in information
seeking and use. Whilst the behaviours are focused on finding, interpreting and
utilizing information, this study extends conventional notions of infor mation activity
to include its creation by writing. Brought about by the phenomena of social media and
ready access to digital environments, the twenty-first century information actor now
plays a recognised role in creating, reassembling and arranging digital information in
the online environment.
With the relatively recent advent of the tabletdevice , few studies to date examine its
impact on information behaviour. This inquiry sets out to establish the impact of
networked mobile tablet devices on human information behaviour patterns.
The literature
Human information behaviour research and theories have featured in the literature for
some decades and see significant emphasis on behaviours such as “encountering,
needing, finding, choosing, and using information” (Case, 2002, p. 4). Information
behaviours include actively seeking out information to meet a need, unintentionally
encountering information (Erdelez, 2005) and avoiding information (Case, 2002). Active
information seeking, as behaviour, has received the majority of attention from scholars
(see e.g. Krikelas, 1983; Ellis, 2005; Turnbull, 2005). Case (2002) claims that human
information behaviour research has trended away from an emphasis on “institutional
sources and searches toward a focus on how individuals encounter and make sense of
their environment” ( p. 4). Dervin (1976, 1983, 1992)was instrumental in this shift in her
attention to the everyday informationneeds of the ordinary citizen and her consideration
of the re-occurring gap in human understanding as driver for information activities.
However, attention to users and their motivations must coexist with considerations of
technologies and information systems (Williamson, 2005; Ingwerson, 2005). More
importantly, Williamson (2005, p. 130) calls for a focus on “the relationship between
information types/sources/systems and the information seeker/user”.
Wilson’s (1981, pp. 659-662, 1999) interrelated models of information behaviour and
seeking allow for a consideration of “informatio n system” that is positioned between
users and the digital information object of their desire. Wilson (1981, p. 662) broadly
positions “information system” to include any technology “that provides techniques,
tools and machines” for finding information. W hen a mediator interrogates the
technology on behalf of the user, they are seen as part of the system. Informed by
the work of Ranganathan (1963) and Sonnenwald and Iivonen (1999) present a
multi-faceted conceptual framework of the many aspects of huma n information
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Impact of mobile
tablet devices
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