Information horizons of college students: source preferences and source referrals in academic contexts

An information horizon (IH) is a mental map where individuals position various sources according to their preferences in specific contexts. IH not only highlights the roles of contexts, situations, and social networks in individuals' information behavior, but also emphasizes the importance of examining the relationships among sources used by individuals. This study investigates undergraduate students' source use preferences in academic contexts---course-related, program-related, and coursework-related moral-support situations. The study also investigates the referral networks among sources used by students. Interviews were conducted with twenty undergraduate students. Each participant was also asked to draw their IH maps. Based on existent IH literature, the study used innovative methods to analyze and present the data. Results show that students had different source preferences in different situations in academic contexts. While peers were consulted across all situations, most of the other sources were typically consulted only in certain situations. As to source referrals, interpersonal sources (e.g., peers) were more likely to direct students to other sources than to receive referrals from other sources, and experts tended to direct students to a wide range of sources, especially to official sources. The findings suggest that universities should facilitate students' use of both official sources and experts as academic sources.