Information behaviour videos on YouTube: an exploratory content analysis, case study of INFIDEOS, and call to action

Abstract

How do landmark concepts of information behaviour appear as videos on YouTube? What do these multimedia artefacts, altogether, suggest about the information behaviour specialty? What might ideal versions of such videos be like? To create an empirical starting point for answering these timely questions, an exploratory content analysis was performed on a sample of 20 educational videos found on YouTube, focusing upon three big ideas of information behaviour: the Information Search Process (Kuhlthau, 1991), Sense-Making (Dervin, 1983) and Berrypicking (Bates, 1989). A coding frame was created with 23 categories and associated subcategories. SurveyMonkey was used to capture, tabulate and present the data. Due to space limitations, not all categories are included in the findings, which are reported as themes with commentary. YouTube’s information behaviour offerings are: cluttered by look-alike videos; uneven in coverage; dominated by librarians and students; and short on scholarly authority. Though singular, featured concepts can be treated thoroughly, most videos have a narrow focus; no scholarly apparatus; and disregard information behaviour’s legacy and culture. Following the content analysis, the author’s YouTube channel of Information Science videos, INFIDEOS, is profiled with attention to its information behaviour resources. Throughout, general video-making strategies are provided.