The false focus in online searching: The particular case of undergraduates seeking information for course assignments in the humanities and social sciences

Reference and User Services Quarterly

Volumn 38, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 267-273

  Kennedy, Lynn ^a   Cole, Charles ^b   Carter, Susan ^c  

^a World Wildlife Fund Canada   (Canada)

^b Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science   (Canada)

^c Art Gallery of Ontario   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033246740     PISSN: 10949054     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Charles Cole and others, "The Optimization of Online Searches through the Labeling of a Dynamic, Situation-Dependent Information Need: The Reference Interview and Online Searching for Undergraduates Doing a Social Science Assignment," Information Management and Processing 32 (1996): 709-17; Lynn Kennedy and others, "Connecting Online Search Strategies and Information Needs: A User-Centered, Focus-Labeling Approach," RQ 36 (Summer 1997): 562-68; The classic example of the "absolute category" model is Robert S. Taylor, "Question Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," College & Research Libraries 29 (May 1958): 178-94. See also Nicholas Belkin and Aline Vickery, Interaction in Information Systems (London: British Library, 1985).
2. Charles Cole and others, "The Optimization of Online Searches through the Labeling of a Dynamic, Situation-Dependent Information Need: The Reference Interview and Online Searching for Undergraduates Doing a Social Science Assignment," Information Management and Processing 32 (1996): 709-17; Lynn Kennedy and others, "Connecting Online Search Strategies and Information Needs: A User-Centered, Focus-Labeling Approach," RQ 36 (Summer 1997): 562-68; The classic example of the "absolute category" model is Robert S. Taylor, "Question Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," College & Research Libraries 29 (May 1958): 178-94. See also Nicholas Belkin and Aline Vickery, Interaction in Information Systems (London: British Library, 1985).
3. Charles Cole and others, "The Optimization of Online Searches through the Labeling of a Dynamic, Situation-Dependent Information Need: The Reference Interview and Online Searching for Undergraduates Doing a Social Science Assignment," Information Management and Processing 32 (1996): 709-17; Lynn Kennedy and others, "Connecting Online Search Strategies and Information Needs: A User-Centered, Focus-Labeling Approach," RQ 36 (Summer 1997): 562-68; The classic example of the "absolute category" model is Robert S. Taylor, "Question Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," College & Research Libraries 29 (May 1958): 178-94. See also Nicholas Belkin and Aline Vickery, Interaction in Information Systems (London: British Library, 1985).
4. Charles Cole and others, "The Optimization of Online Searches through the Labeling of a Dynamic, Situation-Dependent Information Need: The Reference Interview and Online Searching for Undergraduates Doing a Social Science Assignment," Information Management and Processing 32 (1996): 709-17; Lynn Kennedy and others, "Connecting Online Search Strategies and Information Needs: A User-Centered, Focus-Labeling Approach," RQ 36 (Summer 1997): 562-68; The classic example of the "absolute category" model is Robert S. Taylor, "Question Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," College & Research Libraries 29 (May 1958): 178-94. See also Nicholas Belkin and Aline Vickery, Interaction in Information Systems (London: British Library, 1985).
5. Carol C. Kuhlthau makes this observation in "Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the User's Perspective," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42 (5) (1991): 361-71.
6. Marcia J. Bates, "The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface," Online Review 13 (1989): 410.
7. Carol C. Kuhlthau, "Developing a Model of the Library Search Process: Cognitve and Affective Aspects," RQ 28 (1988): 232-42; Kuhlthau, Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1993); and Kuhlthau and others, "Validating a Model of the Search Process: A Comparison of Academic, Public and School Library Users," LISR 12 (1990): 5-31.
8. Carol C. Kuhlthau, "Developing a Model of the Library Search Process: Cognitve and Affective Aspects," RQ 28 (1988): 232-42; Kuhlthau, Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1993); and Kuhlthau and others, "Validating a Model of the Search Process: A Comparison of Academic, Public and School Library Users," LISR 12 (1990): 5-31.
9. Carol C. Kuhlthau, "Developing a Model of the Library Search Process: Cognitve and Affective Aspects," RQ 28 (1988): 232-42; Kuhlthau, Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1993); and Kuhlthau and others, "Validating a Model of the Search Process: A Comparison of Academic, Public and School Library Users," LISR 12 (1990): 5-31.
10. Susan E. MacMullin and Robert S. Taylor, "Problem Dimensions and Information Traits," The Information Society 3 (1986): 100; Stephen P. Harter, "Psychological Relevance and Information Science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 43 (1992): 602-15.
11. Susan E. MacMullin and Robert S. Taylor, "Problem Dimensions and Information Traits," The Information Society 3 (1986): 100; Stephen P. Harter, "Psychological Relevance and Information Science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 43 (1992): 602-15.
12. A full definition of each stage may be found in Kennedy and others, (1997): 564.
13. Charles Cole, "Information Acquisition in History Ph.D. Students: Inferencing and the Formation of Knowledge Structures," Library Quarterly 68 (Jan. 1998): 33-54.
14. Charles Cole and others, "Intelligent Information Retrieval, Part II: Diagnosing Information Need; Uncertainty Expansion: A Prototype of a Diagnostic IR Tool," Information Processing and Management 34 (1998): 721-37.
15. Mark Hellstern and others, The History Student Writer's Manual (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998), 21.
16. Cole and others, 1998.
17. Dai Hounsell, "Contrasting Conceptions of Essay-writing." In The Experience of Learning: Implications for Teaching and Studying in Higher Education, ed. F. Marten and others, (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Pr., 1997), 106.
18. Peter Ingwersen, "Cognitive Perspectives of Information Retrieval Interaction: Elements of a Cognitive IR Theory," Journal of Documentation 52 (1996): 3-50.
19. Bertram C. Brookes, "The Foundations of Information Science, Part I: Philosophical Aspects," Journal of Information Science 2 (1980): 125-33.
20. Cole (1998); Charles Cole, "Information as Process: The Difference between Corroborating Evidence and 'Information' in Humanistic Research Domains," Information Processing and Management 33 (1) (1997).
21. Hellstern and others, (1998): 21.
22. Kuhlthau and others, (1990): 366, 369.
23. In the case of a Ph.D. student, the exploration of the topic, when the student is in the prefocus stage, may take a year or longer (Cole 1998).
24. Kuhlthau (1991): 366
25. Marcia J. Bates, "The Fallacy of the Perfect Thirty-item Online Search," RQ 24 (1984): 43-50.
26. Discussed in Kennedy and others, (1997).
27. To some extent, training that explains the proper uses of databases and search technology can help alleviate information overload. See, for example, Margaret Sylvia and Leigh Kilman, "Searching on CD-ROM in an Academic Environment: How to Avoid CD-ROM Information Overload," Computers in Libraries (Nov. 1991): 44-45. However, we propose here that information overload is not necessarily an evil, but a necessary stage in discovering a true focus for the information need.
28. Amanda Spink and Tefko Saracevic discuss the role of the intermediary in magnitude decisions during online searching in "Human-Computer Interaction in Information Retrieval: Nature and Manifestation of Feedback," Interacting with Computers 10 (1998): 249-67. In their study, the information professional intermediary initiated four-fifths of the magnitude feedback loops.
29. See Catherine S. Ross and Patricia Dewdney, Communicating Professionally (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1989), 40-45 for a discussion of various questioning methods, including instructions on neutral questioning.
30. The categories in this chart are based on title and subject descriptors, which may have suggested two or more overlapping topics. Although we were required to make selection interpretations, the general trends were easily distinguishable.
31. Marti A. Hearst and Chandu Karadi, "Cat-a-Cone: An Interactive Interface for Specifying Searches and Viewing Retrieval Results Using a Large Category Hierarchy," ACM SIGIR: Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, Philadelphia: July 27-July 31, 1997: 246-55.