Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective

The article discusses the users' perspective of information seeking. A model of the information search process is presented derived from a series of five studies investigating common experiences of users in information seeking situations. The cognitive and affective aspects of the process of information seeking suggest a gap between the users' natural process of information use and the information system and intermediaries' traditional patterns of information provision. © 1991 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.