Circular Model of Information Seeking Behaviour: a Study of Information Behaviour

The basic supposition of the circular model of information seeking behaviour is that information seeking of individual begins in the course of their daily practice or activities which prompted information gap as a result of their demographic factors. This information gap in form of needs resulted in seeking for information to fill in the gap within the information environment (i.e. library, information centres, schools, organisations, communities, and internet/electronic resources) which in turn gave rise to an information search process. The information search process was divided into two i.e. active search process mainly through printed information format (books, journals etc) and passive search process through electronic format (such as media, audiovisual and internet). Notably, the information seeking behaviour was greatly influenced by a number of interacting variables, which could ultimately affect the outcome in the form of information seeking activities. Furthermore, any of the components of the model can occur simultaneously, thus representing the true complexity of information seeking behaviour in circular process.