Visual artists' information-seeking behavior takes place in a broad context, involving interaction with a range of visual, textual, environmental, process-related and interpersonal sources. The World Wide Web (or Web) is one such resource that artists turn to within this vast information setting, but to-date, no known studies have examined how artists interact with information online. The present study addresses this gap by exploring non-academic visual artists' use of the Web as it relates to their creative activity. Diaries and interviews were used in order to understand participants' artistic practices and related information needs, as well as their sources, search strategies, and motivations for Web use. The artists' overall information needs matched those identified in previous studies. This study discovered that they use the Web primarily as a tool to promote their art, identify opportunities to further their careers, and socially network. Their use of the Web is connected to various offline information-seeking behaviors, showing that it serves to complement, rather than supplant, many of the sources they consult
