Customer Reviews

Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (Library and Information Science) (Library and Information ... and Information Science (New York, N.Y.).)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm currently enrolled in a doctoral program in Information Science and, while this book isn't the sum total of all LIS knowledge, I've found it invaluable as a reference on Information Seeking. Few other places will you find this level of literature review laid out in such a compact way. I use it nearly every day in my studies and I'm grateful that Don Case wrote it. It's a roadmap and guidebook for my studies.

- A reader from Texas

As a graduate student in Library and Information Studies, I was assigned this book in one of my courses. As textbooks in this field go, Case's book is more readable than most. As mentioned by an earlier reviewer, it is an in-depth literature review, and since it is for one of the required courses which had to be taken early on, it will be a useful reference in future classes. In fact, it is a book that I will retain simply as a source of information on possible research material.

The book is well organized and frankly, is one of the nicest as far as materials and construction. The questions at the back of the book, supposedly relating to each chapter, were confusing in that there seemed to be no relationship in many instances.

The one serious complaint that I can make is the tremendous need for editing and proofreading in this edition. The book is replete with incorrect grammar, misspellings, missing words, extra words, etc. Hopefully, these will be corrected in the new edition.

I am a doctoral student in Information Science and reading the first edition of this book as a textbook in one of my MLS courses 4 years ago is what inspired me and motivated me to apply for a PhD program. I have read hundreds of books and thousands of articles in the field of User Studies and Information Seeking since then, but I keep coming back to this book again and again as it is like a refdesk full of information about all the major works in the field, and organized in a very easy-to-comprehend manner. I like the second edition even better on account of the added Glossary. Thank you, Dr. Case, for doing all the hard work to compile such an expansive literature review and a wonderful and thought-provoking introduction to the research in my field!

I bought this because it was a required book for a college course. It is very dense, in small print, and hard cover. The material is interesting and it is supposed to be a survey of all the research done on this subject, which it does very well. It mentions and explores not only the major studies but also many lessor known ones. This book is good for a class or research but this is not a book you would just read for fun.

I am using it in a graduate course I am taking and have found it to be very easy to read. It does a good job of describing the various theories concerning information seeking behavior and provides decent examples.

This book had all the information I needed. I am a graduate student working on a dissertation in health care, I found the background and theory very useful.

I was excited by the possibility of a suitable overview of information seeking, I obtained the book a.s.a.p. I was willing to forgive the high price in favour of a good text.

It was downhill from there: Unfortunately the text of Donald Case's book fails to impress on any level.

For the scope of the subject matter the book is surprising in the selection of items included and omitted. With some areas appearing rather bald in references and general coverage.

By giving focus to a selection of models that embrace need and sources, and in different aspects e.g. information overload, the portrait is skewed.

To use this book in teaching it would require much more support from supplementary texts and journal articles to correct the omissions.

I cannot recommend this text to students nor to academics seeking a suitable class text.