A Study on the Categorization of Citizens` Information Needs

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, we develop a categorization of citizens’ informa tion problems in their everyday life based on the characteristics in their information seeking behavior for developing information services which support to solve the problems practically. First of all, we ext racted keywords related to their faced everyday life problems from the scripts of open-ended interviews with citizens who had diverse characteristics. The keywords were categorized into 6 groups, such as hobby/recr eation, legal problems, current affairs, education, health, and economic matters, based on the character istics in related information seeking behaviors. Then the 6-group categorization was tested statistic ally with questionnaire survey data based on their prefered information sources. Through the statistical test, the 6-group categorization has proved being valid. Based on the results, we suggested to reconsider t he current information services in public libraries, and discussed a possibility to shift the services to problem-based information services.키워드: 정보요구, 범주화, 시민, 일상정보추구, 정보문제중심Information Needs, Categorization, Citizen, ELIS (Everyday Life Information Seeking), Information Problem-Centered