Thomas D. Wilson

Thomas D. Wilson (born 18 January 1935) is a British information scientist whose research has focused on information management and information seeking behavior.[1] Wilson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield and at the University of Borås, Sweden.

Life

Thomas Daniel Wilson was born in 1935 in County Durham, England. He left school at age 16 to work as a library assistant in Durham County Library. Following two years' national service in the Royal Air Force he returned to Durham County Library and took the examinations of the Library Association to qualify as a professional librarian. He then served as head of the library at Stockton/Billingham Technical College, and as a corporate librarian for the Nuclear Research Centre of C. A. Parsons and Company (now Siemens Power Generation, Newcastle), when he became interested in the use of new technology in information science. He completed his Library Association Fellowship in 1961. He began teaching that year in the School of Librarianship, College of Commerce, Newcastle upon Tyne, first as Assistant Lecturer and then as Principal Lecturer. He married Nyra Tully in 1960; they remained married until her death in 2024. Wilson obtained his B.Sc. in Economics from the University of London in 1970.[2]

Contributions

Wilson spent the academic year 1970-1971, plus the summer of 1971, as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Maryland at the invitation of Professor Paul Wasserman, the founding Dean of the library school. While there, Wilson worked with fellow Visiting Lecturer Dagobert Soergel to re-design their Proseminar course. In January 1972, Wilson moved to University of Sheffield to take up a two-year position as Principal Investigator on a research project at the invitation of Professor Wilf Saunders, Head of the Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science. Towards the end of the Local Library Cooperation project, Wilson was appointed to a full-time position on the academic staff, and he worked on completing his Ph.D. From 1974 onwards Wilson obtained a succession of research grants from the British Library Research and Development Department (BLRDD), the Department of Health and Social Security, and the Economic and Social Research Council. Wilson received his Ph.D. from University of Sheffield in 1975.[3]

While at Sheffield, Wilson became extensively involved in international activities. Sheffield's School ran courses for the British Council which were sometimes followed by requests to travel to advise on various aspects of professional education. Wilson had trips to Turkey, Poland, Tunisia, and Morocco and the beginning of a long association with Portugal. Sheffield eventually offered its MSc in Information Management on a part-time basis at the campus of the Instituto Nacional de Engenharia in Lisbon. One graduate of the program, Ana Azevedo, contributed to the development of an MSc in Information Management program at the University of Oporto and Wilson taught in that program until 2012.

In 1982, Wilson took over from Wilf Saunders as Head of the now Department of Information Studies, the name having been changed in 1981. Wilson served as Head of Department until 1997. During his Study Leaves, Wilson served in visiting roles at McGill University (Canada), Curtin University (Western Australia), and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA). He was instrumental in the establishment of EUCLID (the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research), which is now known as the BOBCATSSS not-for-profit association.

Wilson retired from the University of Sheffield in 2000. He currently serves as Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds Business School.

Information Behavior Research:

Wilson published his first model of information behavior in 1981,[4] outlining the factors leading to information seeking and the barriers inhibiting action. He later (1994)[5] built upon his original model in order to understand the personal circumstance, social role, and environmental context in which an information need is created. He proposed a third, general model in 1996 that incorporated several new elements to demonstrate the stages experienced by the 'person in context', or searcher, when looking for information. In (1999)[6] Wilson published his nested model.

Dr. Wilson's best-known study on information seeking behavior was the INISS project (Information Needs in Local Authority Social Services Departments), conducted from 1980 to 1985. Using 'structured observation' as one of the main research methods, the five-person research team carried out a total of twenty-two person-weeks of observation before surveying a further 150 persons in an interview survey. The aim of the project was to increase the efficiency of Social Services workers in the management of information.

More recently, Dr. Wilson looked at information seeking behavior for the British Library Research and Innovation Centre. The resulting paper, "Uncertainty in Information Seeking" (1999), identified that information seeking is based on a series of uncertainty resolutions which lead to a problem solution. At each of the four steps of the process - problem identification, problem definition, problem resolution, and solution statement - more information must be gathered in order to resolve the uncertainty of that step.

Dr. Wilson has been an advocate for the adoption of activity theory in the area of information behaviour and in information systems research. He created a new process model of activity, with Motivation and Goal and how they prepare the information environment for activity, overall stressing that activity theory is not predictive, but rather a framework attempting to describe human behaviour.

Wilson was the founder and first editor of the International Journal of Information Management. In this area he studied business use of the World Wide Web,[7] the relationship of information systems and business performance,[8] and the application of mobile information systems in policing.[9]

Wilson founded Information Research: An International Electronic Journal in 1995 and published it until 2017, when it moved to the University of Borås. Wilson served as the journal's editor-in-chief until 2024, when the position was assumed by Dr. Crystal Fulton of University College Dublin.[10]

Publications

• Wilson, T. D. (1981). "On user studies and information needs." Journal of Documentation, 37(1), 3-15.[11]
• Wilson, T. D. (1994). "Information needs and uses: fifty years of progress?". In B. C. Vickory (ed.). Fifty years of information progress: A Journal of Documentation review. London: Aslib. pp. 15–51.[12]
• Wilson, T.D. (1999). "Models in information behaviour research." Journal of Documentation, 55(3), 249-270.[13]
• Wilson, T. D. (2010). "Fifty Years of Information Behavior Research." Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 36(3), 27-34.[14]
• Fulton, Crystal & Wilson, Thomas (2025). "A Reflection on 30 Years of Information Research with Professor Tom Wilson". Information Research 30(2), 8–15.[15]

Awards

• Jason Farradane Award, UK eInformation Group, 2020
• ASIST Award of Merit, 2017
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Murcia, Spain, 2010
• Fellow of the SIG USE Academy of Fellows, ASIS&T, 2009
• Outstanding Contributions to Information Behavior Award, Special Interest Group of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2009
• Honorary Doctorate (Filosofie Hedersdoktor) from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2005
• ALISE Award for Professional Contribution to Library and Information Education, 2000
• Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Information Scientists (now Chartered Institute of Information and Library Professionals), 1993

Further Reading

• INISS Project Report, University of Sheffield, 1980.[16]
• "Professor T. D. Wilson - Home Page". 2013.[17]
• "2017 ASIS&T Award of Merit". ASIST.org. 2017.[18]
• "Professor Emeritus Tom Wilson Awarded ASIS&T Award of Merit". Information School News - The Information School at the University of Sheffield. 2017.[19]
• "Professor Tom Wilson". The University of Sheffield. 2026.[20]
• "Thomas D. Wilson" Wikipedia.[21]