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Using the profiles of women living in a retirement community, the author explores the information and social worlds of aging women. The focus of the study is the effects of aging on help-seeking behaviors. The author examines ways in which older women search for information; she found several areas of need, including failing health, financial concerns, and loneliness. For many of the women, death was not a problematic area. The author also discovered that the most critical areas of need were not shared with others. In fact, the residents chose to conceal the most dire needs for assistance. Surprisingly, the retirement community played a major role in this process.
The relationships between help-seeking behaviors and information policy is extensively discussed. The role that information professionals can play in bringing information to populations such as the one examined here adds insight to the studies of information use and user needs.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction
Research and Conduct of the Study
The Life World of Older Women's Information-Seeking Behaviors
Social Network Theory
The Search for Help
The Social World of Retired Women
The Search for Information
Social Ties and Networking
Help-Seeking Behaviors and Information Policy
Appendix: Interview Guide
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
ELFREDA A. CHATMAN is Associate Professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has contributed articles to several library-related journals, including
Library and Information Science Research,
Journal of the American Society for Information Science, and
RQ.
