The influence of Taylor’s paper, Question-Negotiation and Information-Seeking in Libraries

• The influence of Taylor’s 1968 article is mainly in library and information science.
• An increasing influence in non-LIS fields has appeared since 2003.
• Taylor’s concept of “four levels of information needs” has had the largest influence.
• Information retrieval researchers focused on concepts relating to information needs.
• Reference service researchers focused on concepts relating to reference interviews.

This study uses bibliometric analysis and citation context analysis to identify the influence of the main concepts embedded in Taylor’s 1968 classic article entitled Question-Negotiation and Information-Seeking in Libraries. This study analyses articles published between 1969 and 2010 which cite Taylor’s article. The results show that Taylor’s article on a question-negotiation model is increasingly visible and its influence is not limited to the discipline of library and information science. Of the 14 cited concepts identified, the concept of “four levels of information needs” was cited most (31.7%), followed by “question negotiation” (20.5%) and “other concepts relating to information needs” (17.9%). The results indicate an increasing trend in the citations of “four levels of information needs” and this concept also received the most attention from information retrieval research. A decreasing trend was evident for the concept of “question negotiation” and this concept was frequently cited by reference service researchers. In addition, among the 10 citation functions, “related literature” was dominant (30.8%). Both “evidence” and “views” were in second place with the same percentage (18.7%), followed by “terms” (9.2%) and “background information” (7.2%). A decreasing trend was identified in the top three citation functions, whereas an increasing trend was observed in the “term” and “background information” functions.