Affective Aspects of the Information Search

Kulthau, C. (1991). Inside the search process: information seeking from the user’s perspective. JASIS. 42(5):361-371.

In the early 1990s Kulthau was involved in articulating the stages of the information seeking process from the user’s perspective. The researchers in human information behavior rally around any theory that places the user at the center of the information universe.
Kulthau extends the meaning of John Seely Brown’s situated cognition theories which focus on the culture of learning as either useless or meaningful, that is, either effective or ineffective. Kulthau, as an educator, understands the integration of knowledge or search results into the user’s own life. She extends Dervin’s sense-making theories, and builds on Belkin’s ASK model.
It is significant for students or any users of information to realize that the process of research involves more than the search for sources, but is a transformation in what the user knows. If what the user finds out does not coincide with what the user already knows, then what happens? Uncertainty or confusion.