An integrated human information behavior research framework for information studies

Human information behavior is emerging as an important component of informa tion studies. As in many emerging research areas, one challenge is to ident ify important facets of human information behavior and understand how diffe rent methods can be best used to research these facets. This paper presents the framework of an approach to designing and synthesizing research studie s in human information behavior. The framework emerges from previous resear ch in human information behavior and incorporates Ranganathan's framework f or knowledge organization. It proposes that research studies that investiga te human information behavior should consider the following facets: persona lity, matter, energy, space, and time. Personality refers to actors, and in this framework includes participants and their social networks. Matter ref ers to the target of the action. It includes information and information re sources, including services and technology that may provide access to infor mation. Energy is the action itself, including the participants' tasks, pro cesses, and goals. Space is the environment of the action, and includes phy sical space as well as organizational and sociopolitical contexts. Time is the nonspatial continuum in which actions and events occur; in the framewor k, time is considered an episode, interval, or eon. Facets that should be i nvestigated and taken into account in a study help guide the selection of t he research methods for the study. Furthermore, research results from multi ple studies can be synthesized by understanding the relationships among the facets investigated in the different studies.