Tools-at-hand and learning in multi-session, collaborative search

  • Authors:

  • Robert Capra;Gary Marchionini;Javier Velasco-Martin;Katrina Muller

  • Affiliations:

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Improving search interfaces and algorithms are major foci of HCI and information retrieval (IR) research respectively. However, less attention has been given to understanding how users collect, manage, organize, and share the results they find from conducting searches on the Web and designing tools to support their needs. In this paper, we present results from a study in which we interviewed 30 people in three cohorts (academic researchers, corporate workers, and people looking for medical information) about their current practices conducting, managing, and sharing information from on-going, exploratory searches. We report results on users' current practices, tool use, areas of difficulties and associated coping strategies with emphasis on how information seekers use a variety of "tools-at-hand" beyond search engines and web browsers as they search, process, and share results, and on the learning processes that occur as they seek and use information over time.