Information behavior of people in the fourth age: Implications for the conceptualization of information literacy

Submitted by mlb78 on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 17:25
TitleInformation behavior of people in the fourth age: Implications for the conceptualization of information literacy
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsWilliamson, Kirsty, and Asla, Terryl
JournalLibrary and Information Science Research
Volume31
Issue2
Pagination76-83
ISSN Number0740-8188
Keywordseducation, older adults
AbstractThe information literacy (IL) needs of people in the fourth age, a stage of increasing dependence and disability, have not been considered in the research literature. Based on the premise that there are relationships between information seeking and IL, this article begins to bridge this gap by focusing on the information-seeking behavior of the group in an attempt to identify IL needs. It does this through a literature review, particularly drawing on two pieces of human information behavior research, one a new study focused specifically on the group in question. It also examines existing definitions of IL in order to gauge how relevant they appear to be. The reasons for studying this group include that all stages of a person's lifespan deserve to be studied and that the population size of this group increases dramatically in the developed world. Although information needs and sources used are fewer in the fourth age, they are still important to the people involved, thus making IL a relevant concept. The researchers draw implications for IL from the particularities of the information context where disability and frailty impede purposeful information seeking. The resulting emphasis on incidental information acquisition increases the role for social networks and communication, again with implications for IL. Information grounds, where people congregate for purposes other than information sharing, including artificially created ones, will also be important for information dissemination. The role of the Internet, including assistive technology for its use, is also relevant. The conclusion is that IL is crucial to the well-being of people in the fourth age but that existing definitions need to be adjusted to the specific informational context. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
NotesThis paper focused on the Information literacy of the fourth age population which refers to the oldest members of the community. Specificallly, it is interested in exploring what kind of conceptualization is appropriate for this group. Firstly, the authors discussed the question of how the older people and the information literacy should be defined. The research was mainly based on the literature review of two major research projects, namely the Williamson's and the Asla's, that comprised primarily of qualitative but a few quantitative data. The main part of the paper discussed how information-seeking behavior of people in the fourth age will impact their information literarcy needs.
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2009.01.002
DOI10.1016/j.lisr.2009.01.002