Information-Seeking Behaviors of Wildfire Victims: Wildfires affect people from all walks of life and around the globe. This paper explores the information needs of the community of wildfire survivors. This begins by thinking about the people involved in this community. “In order to understand an information need, it is often necessary to understand the context of human needs that created a need for information” (Naumer et al., p. 2115). Using this lens to view the information needs of the wildfire community aligns well with Dervin’s sense-making model of information needs which focuses on the information user rather than the institutions providing information. This paper will explore how this communities needs shift temporally through the stages of wildfire – before (preparedness), during (active fire), and after (recovery). The role of local community takes center stage over technology during a fire, but recovery can be supported by local libraries, especially in providing technology infrastructure to a devastated community. Equity also plays a role as wildfire victims may received different treatment along socio-economic, racial, and global lines. The consequences of this can have a devastating effect on those involved in wildfire and point to a need to do further research to best support the information behavior of wildfire survivors.

Val Brownsmith is an MLIS student at San José State University. She has spent the last 20 years as a math and computer science teacher. She is excited to shift her career into working with youth in public libraries. Val is also a mom to two young kids (2 and 5), and spends her free time playing games and painting.