Towards information anxiety and beyond

Abstract

This study provides an overview of the historical background of information anxiety, critically reviews the existing framework, and proposes a new framework for information anxiety that goes beyond information retrieval and information seeking in the contemporary information environment to inform policy and practice. The proposed framework comprises of six dimensions, namely: task conceptualization; need recognition; finding information; evaluating information; accessing information; and using information. This study also outlines certain correlatives of information anxiety based on the existing research. It also outlines theoretical and practical implications of information anxiety on information retrieval and information literacy (IL) instructions. It concludes with directions for future research on information anxiety considering the contemporary information landscape. This study would be a worthy contribution in the existing research on information anxiety as no such study appeared so far.