Compare methods

	Ellis Information-Seeking Behavior Model	Information Search Process Model
Field	Library Information Science	Library Information Science
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1989	1991
Originator	David Ellis	Carol C. Kuhlthau
Type	Behavioural-features model of information-seeking activities	Stage model of the holistic information search experience
Seminal source	Ellis, D. (1989). A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design. Journal of Documentation, 45(3), 171-212.	Kuhlthau, C. C. (1991). Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(5), 361-371.
Aliases	Ellis Model, Ellis Behavioural Features Model, Information-Seeking Features Framework, Starting-Chaining-Browsing Model	ISP Model, Kuhlthau Information Search Process, Uncertainty Principle of Information Seeking, Six-Stage Search Process
Related	3	3
Summary	David Ellis's model, set out in his 1989 article 'A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design,' characterizes information seeking through a set of generic behavioural features rather than a fixed sequence of stages. From grounded-theory studies of how academic researchers actually look for information, Ellis identified features such as starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring and extracting. The crucial claim is that these are recurring activities whose detailed pattern and interrelation vary from person to person and task to task, so information seeking is better described as a flexible repertoire of behaviours than as a single ordered process. Because each feature maps onto a concrete capability, the model was explicitly framed to inform the design of information retrieval systems that support real seeking behaviour.	The Information Search Process (ISP) model, developed by Carol Kuhlthau and consolidated in her 1991 study 'Inside the Search Process,' describes information seeking as a holistic, extended experience in which feelings, thoughts and actions evolve together across six stages. Drawing on a series of longitudinal studies of students working on research papers, Kuhlthau showed that an information search is not a smooth, rational march to an answer but an emotional journey: uncertainty and anxiety are highest in the early, exploratory phase and only subside once the seeker forms a personal focus for the work. Her 'uncertainty principle' reframed information seeking as a process of construction in the sense of George Kelly's personal construct theory, and her notion of a 'zone of intervention' gave librarians and system designers a principled account of when and how to help.