This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in Library & Information Science Research: Yi, Y. J., Stvilia, B., & Mon, L. (2011). Cultural influences on seeking quality health information: An exploratory study of the Korean community. Library & Information Science Research. 1 Cultural influences on seeking quality health information: An exploratory study of the Korean community Yong J Yi, Besiki Stvilia, & Lorri Mon Abstract The study explored consumer health information seeking behavior of members of a local Korean community in Tallahassee, Florida; how they assessed the quality of health information; and what cultural values influenced their understanding of its quality. The study employed semi- structured interviews. The study identified accuracy and reliability as the two most valuable quality characteristics. Commercial type of a webpage was considered as a negative indicator for reliability, while the same information found on more than one website as an indicator of the information’s reliability. In addition to functional quality criteria, the study found non-functional characteristics such as empathy. Most of all findings highlighted that cultural differences limited the use of health information. Quality based selection of information is an important part of a health information seeking process. This study can help the designers of consumer health information systems on the Web with important insights into how to support the evaluation of quality of health information by consumers, and to reduce barriers to information-seeking and use caused by cultural differences 1. Introduction Consumer health information accessed through both the Internet and libraries is becoming important for public health care (Shepperd, Charnock, D., & Gann, 1999; Cline & Haynes, 2001; Kouame, Harris, & Murray, 2005; Smith, Logsden, & Clark, 2005; Marshall & Williams, 2006). Healthy People 2010 (Dept of Health and Human Services, 2001) and Pew Internet and American Life Project (Fox, 2006; 2008) found that the use of consumer health information, particularly through the Internet, was a widespread trend by lay people. Koreans living in the U.S. commonly seek consumer health information through the Internet. Previous studies (Pourat, Lubben, Yu, and Wallace, 2000; Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), 2006) found that the high use of online consumer health information by ethnic minority consumers could be caused by several factors: low income, low language proficiency,