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Information Needs, Seeking and Use (SIG-USE)

SIG USE members are concerned with people's behavioral and cognitive activities as well as their affective states as they interact with information.

About Our SIG

SIG USE members are concerned with people's behavioral and cognitive activities as well as their affective states as they interact with information. These activities include:

  • creating information needs
  • recognizing information needs
  • seeking (and not seeking) information that will address those needs
  • exploring information sources present in one's context/situation
  • retrieving information from available information sources
  • sharing information with others
  • managing personal information collections
  • communicating and collaborating with others concerning an information need or information resources using information and other interactions between people and information.

The SIG wishes to promote contextual studies of human information-related behavior and provision of information services, and to encourage the application of the study results to information systems design.

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Recent Awards & Honors

Members of SIG USE have received numerous honors from ASIS&T over the years. At the 2018 Annual Meeting, Sarah Polkinghorne (Swinburne University of Technology) won the Clarivate Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship and received a New Leader award. Additionally, Crystal Fulton (University College Dublin) received the Clarivate Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, and Devon Greyson (University of

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How to Join

To be a member, one first needs to be a member of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). When completing the Membership Application Form, select the special interest group (SIG) of your choice.

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