Now that the semesters are started or starting it may be useful point out that a new version of  T.D. Wilson. (Ed.).  Theory in Information Behaviour Research. (Sheffield, UK: Eiconics, Ltd.  2013. Price: $9.99), with typos corrected, has been published.  Those who bought the first version will be able, I believe, to download the corrected text.  

The e-book available in the Apple iBook format from the iTunes store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/theory-in-information-behaviour/id662992330?mt=11   and in other formats from Smashwords at  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/336724 

“Information behaviour” is the research field that deals with how people interact with information and information sources, how their needs arise, how they are satisfied and how they use the information they find.  This collection of chapters deals with key theories employed in information behaviour research.

There are eight chapters: Activity theory, by T.D. Wilson; Critical theory, by G. Benoit; Personal construct theory, by R. Reynolds; Personality theory, by J. Heinström; Practice theory, by A. Cox; Social cognitive theory, by A. Palsdottir; and Social phenomenology, by T.D. Wilson and R. Savolainen.  The final chapter is on theoretical approaches employed in Russia and Eastern Europe, by E. Maceviciute.

All of the authors are known for having used the different theoretical perspectives in their own research.

The book is intended for students at Master’s and Doctoral levels, and is priced so as to be affordable to all – an equivalent printed book would have cost in the region of $50-$60.  Doctoral and Master’s programmes may find it useful as a class text for theory courses.

A recently published review http://informationr.net/ir/reviews/revs482.html notes:

“This is a beautifully written book--very intense/very in depth--for researchers and graduate students in information science interested in utilizing well established theories from other disciplines to conceptualize aspects of the user-information nexus. This gives the book an empirical and practical basis to the theories described in the reader. Each of the eight chapters is designed to take advantage of this theory-to-research practice premise.”

Reviews are also known to be forthcoming in Australian Academic and Research Libraries (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uarl20) and Education Libraries (http://units.sla.org/division/ded/education_libraries.html).