Search (2 results, page 1 of 1)

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Abstract

An exploratory study was conducted of elementary school children searching a full-text electronic encyclopedia on CD-ROM. 28 third and forth graders and 24 sixth graders conducted 2 assigned searches, one open-ended, the other one closed, after 2 demonstration sessions. Keystrokes captured by the computer and observer notes were used to examine user information-seeking strategies from a mental model perspective. Older searchers were more successful in finding required information, and took less time than younger searchers. No differences in total number of moves were found. Analysis of search patterns showed that novices used a heuristic, highly interactive search strategy. Searchers used sentence and phrase queries, indicating unique mental models for this search system. Most searchers accepted system defaults and used the AND connective in formulating queries. Transition matrix analysis showed that younger searchers generally favoured query refining moves and older searchers fovoured examining title and text moves. Suggestions for system designers were made and future research questions were identified

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Abstract

This article proposes a theory of information need for information retrieval (IR). Information need traditionally denotes the start state for someone seeking information, which includes information search using an IR system. There are two perspectives on information need. The dominant, computer science perspective is that the user needs to find an answer to a well-defined question which is easy for the user to formulate into a query to the system. Ironically, information science's best known model of information need (Taylor, 1968) deems it to be a "black box"-unknowable and nonspecifiable by the user in a query to the information system. Information science has instead devoted itself to studying eight adjacent or surrogate concepts (information seeking, search and use; problem, problematic situation and task; sense making and evolutionary adaptation/information foraging). Based on an analysis of these eight adjacent/surrogate concepts, we create six testable propositions for a theory of information need. The central assumption of the theory is that while computer science sees IR as an information- or answer-finding system, focused on the user finding an answer, an information science or user-oriented theory of information need envisages a knowledge formulation/acquisition system.