Intrinsic motivation for information seeking

I recently read an interesting article that led to a mini-epiphany about how librarians approach instruction. First, for the citation:

Beautyman, Wendy, and Andrew K. Shenton. “When Does an Academic Information Need Stimulate a School-Inspired Information Want?” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 41.2 (2009): 67-80. DOI: 10.1177/0961000609102821.

The literature review section of the article discusses the distinction between information wants and information needs (if any): a nuanced debate. The study itself then examines young children's behaviour in seeking information in school and at home in response to topics and assignments brought up in the classroom. What prompts the students to seek further information? How do they go about it? The authors conclude that the action of seeking additional information arises in several situations, primarily when students recognize a gap or anomaly in their current knowledge and when they feel a personal association with, interest in, or emphathy for the topic.

The conclusion section of the piece was what really struck me, where the authors discuss intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation flows from a personal, internal desire to complete an activity for its own sake. In the context of the article, intrinsically motivated information seeking is undertaken simply for the sake of understanding. In other words, knowledge is its own reward.

Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from an outside source, such as a required assignment or an order from an authority figure. Librarians, in my experience, often rely on extrinsic motivation when presenting instruction sessions to students and promoting library services. Some of my colleagues and I, for example, often try to motivate students to pay attention to our workshops with dramatic declarations that the information we provide is essential to the academic task at hand. We tend to assume that students won't listen unless they have to in order to complete an assignment.

I wonder if sometimes we're selling ourselves short by assuming that students will respond only to extrinsic motivational factors. Instead, perhaps students would be inspired to seek out information for self-motivated reasons if we can present the tricks of our trade as wonderful and magical tools that can open a world of information. Instead of focusing on a mechanical "how to find information," we can spark interest in the "why."

The desire to pursue information in response to personal interests and gaps in knowledge is very natural, and librarians should foster this intrinsic motivation rather than ignoring it.