Modeling individual-level information behavior: A Person-in-Environment (PIE) framework

Abstract

This paper has two goals: (1) to introduce the Person-inEnvironment (PIE) framework, which the author developed to measure the relative impacts of socio-structural and individual factors on individual information behavior; and (2) to demonstrate PIE's applicability. An empirical study on the factors of students' library usage is presented. PIE addresses a research gap in the information behavior area- the shortage of societal-level research. In PIE, individual factors (e.g., cognitive and affective) and socio-structural factors (e.g., information resources distribution) are conceptualized as inter-related. Thus, they need to be tested simultaneously with a multivariate method such as structural equation modeling (SEM). Previously, it was difficult to link individual and socio-structural factors. This is because their units of observation often vary. This author proposes linking diverse datasets with geographic information systems (GIS), using spatial location as the key. The PIE framework can contribute to theoretical and methodological discussions in information behavior research. It also offers scholars and policymakers a way to empirically assess the contributions of information services.