Task complexity, problem structure and information actions: Integrating studies on information seeking and retrieval

Analyzing actions to be supported by information and information retrieval (IR) systems is vital for understanding the needs of different types of information, search strategies and relevance assessments, in short, understanding IR. A necessary condition for this understanding is to link results from information seeking studies to the body of knowledge by IR studies. The actions to be focused on in this paper are tasks from the angle of problem solving. I will analyze certain features of work tasks and relate these features to types of information people are looking for and using in their tasks, patterning of search strategies for obtaining information and relevance assessments in choosing retrieved documents. The major claim is that these information activities are systematically connected to task complexity and structure of the problem at hand. The argumentation is based on both theoretical and empirical results from studies on information retrieval and seeking.     

Collaborative information seeking: The combined activity of information seeking and collaborative grounding

Since common ground is pivotal to collaboration, this paper proposes to define collaborative information seeking as the combined activity of information seeking and collaborative grounding. While information-seeking activities are necessary for collaborating actors to acquire new information, the activities involved in information seeking are often performed by varying subgroups of actors. Consequently, collaborative grounding is necessary to share information among collaborating actors and, thereby, establish and maintain the common ground necessary for their collaborative work. By focusing on the collaborative level, collaborative information seeking aims to avoid both individual reductionism and group reductionism, while at the same time recognizing that only some information and understanding need be shared.     

Uncertainty in information seeking and retrieval: A study in an academic environment

This research focuses specifically on uncertainty and information seeking in a digital environment. In this research we argue that different types of uncertainty are associated with the information seeking process and that, with the proliferation of new and different search tools, sources and channels, uncertainty, positive/desirable or negative/undesirable, continues to be a significant factor in the search process. Users may feel uncertain at any stage of the information search and retrieval process and uncertainty may remain even after completion of the process resulting in what may be called persistent uncertainty. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from users in the higher education sector. There were three parts to the questionnaire focusing on: information seeking activities, information seeking problems, and access to specific information channels or sources. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the data collected through the online questionnaire. A total of 668 responses were returned from the chosen user categories of academic staff, research staff and research students. This research has shown that there are some information seeking activities and information seeking problems that are the most common causes of uncertainty among significant number of users from different disciplines, age, gender, ICT skills, etc. This is also the case with respect to access to and use of specific information sources/channels, although the degrees of uncertainty in relation are relatively small. Possible implications of this study and further research issues are indicated.     

The application of the concept of homeosemy to natural language information retrieval

The success of information retrieval depends on the ability to measure the effective relationship between a query and its response. If both are posed in natural language, one might expect that understanding the meaning of that language could not be avoided. The aim of this research is to demonstrate that it is perhaps unnecessary to be able to determine the meaning in the absolute sense; it may be sufficient to measure how far there is a conformity in meaning, and then only in the context of the set of documents in which the answer to a query is sought. Handling a particular language using a computer is made possible through replacing certain texts by special sets. A given text has a ‘syntactic trace’, the set of all the overlapping trigrams forming part of the text. When determining the effective relationship between a query and its answer, not only do their syntactic traces play a role, but so do the traces of all other documents in the set. This is known as the ‘information trace method’.     

A lemmatization method for Mongolian and its application to indexing for information retrieval

In Mongolian, two different alphabets are used, Cyrillic and Mongolian. In this paper, we focus solely on the Mongolian language using the Cyrillic alphabet, in which a content word can be inflected when concatenated with one or more suffixes. Identifying the original form of content words is crucial for natural language processing and information retrieval. We propose a lemmatization method for Mongolian. The advantage of our lemmatization method is that it does not rely on noun dictionaries, enabling us to lemmatize out-of-dictionary words. We also apply our method to indexing for information retrieval. We use newspaper articles and technical abstracts in experiments that show the effectiveness of our method. Our research is the first significant exploration of the effectiveness of lemmatization for information retrieval in Mongolian.     

From information seeking to information avoidance: Understanding the health information behavior during a global health crisis

Individuals seek information for informed decision-making, and they consult a variety of information sources nowadays. However, studies show that information from multiple sources can lead to information overload, which then creates negative psychological and behavioral responses. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, we propose a model to understand the effect of information seeking, information sources, and information overload (Stimuli) on information anxiety (psychological organism), and consequent behavioral response, information avoidance during the global health crisis (COVID-19). The proposed model was tested using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for which data were collected from 321 Finnish adults using an online survey. People found to seek information from traditional sources such as mass media, print media, and online sources such as official websites and websites of newspapers and forums. Social media and personal networks were not the preferred sources. On the other hand, among different information sources, social media exposure has a significant relationship with information overload as well as information anxiety. Besides, information overload also predicted information anxiety, which further resulted in information avoidance.     

The economic evaluation of information storage and retrieval systems

This paper describes a formal standardized procedure for the decision-making process for the purchase or rejection of an information storage and retrieval system. The interaction of both the purchaser of the system and its potential users with the various models of the system (such as cost-time-volume models and performance evaluation models) ensures that the purchase decision for a given system is affected by all possible constraints and is universally acceptable. If either purchaser or users find a particular system unacceptable, the procedure either rejects it or institutes modifications (within given constraints) until a generally acceptable system is determined, if one exists.     

On studying information seeking methodologically: the implications of connecting metatheory to method

Theory constructs its evidence, and values and faith construct what constitute theory. [Maines, D. R. & Molseed, M. J. (1986). The obsessive discoverer's complex and the ‘discovery’ of growth in sociological theory. American Journal of Sociology, 92(1), 158–163.]To admit that knowledge is intrinsically erroneous is not to imply that we should forego it. [McGuire, W. J. (1986). A perspectivist looks at contextualism and the future of behavioral science. In R. L. Rosnow & M. Georgoudi (Eds.), Contextualism and understanding in behavioral science: implications for research and theory. New York: Praeger, 271–301.]It is not enough for theory to describe and analyze, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must… tear itself from all referents and take pride in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality. [Baudrillard, J. (1988). The ecstasy of communication. New York: Semiotext(e).]The purpose I have mandated for this article is to explore the implications of articulating the bridges that are built, usually implicitly, between metatheory and method, and between these and their ultimate interests, the doing of research. The purpose is to articulate the uses of methodology. To chart this as a mandate is to assume, in contradiction to extant wisdom, that: (1) the journey has not yet been fully mapped; and (2) in fact there are multiple and everchanging ways of bridging these gaps with no one agreed upon single set of criteria by which the results can be evaluated. Above these assumptions is a higher level assumption that impels this journey -- that taking an explicitly and self-consciously methodological approach is necessary to the improvement of the enterprise of systematic study.It is the primary purpose of this paper to illustrate by example the statements made above. The argument supporting the statements can be found elsewhere (A longer version of this paper is available which includes arguments regarding inattentions to methodology and a bibliography which includes authors writing on the issue. Readers who wish a copy may contact dervin.1@osu.edu). Suffice it to say here that the statements above rest on the assumption that in the midst of the paradigm battles which mark today's study of humans and their conditions, methodology as a term is highly contested, much abused, and frequently ignored. It is referred to either as method, or as metatheorical critique of the constructing of theory. It is, thus, either collapsed into method or collapsed into metatheory and in either locale it disappears. Rarely, however, is methodology attended to as that branch of metatheory which involves the reflexive analysis and development of methods -- with methods defined broadly as methods of theorizing, observing, data collecting, analyzing, and interpreting. The result is that we lack a vocabulary for talking about methodology, a vocabulary which attends to the philosophic mandate in the term, the way in which it might build a bridge between metatheoy and method, and, thus, make more obvious the impacts of these on research and its theory-constructings.     

Online community information seeking: The queries of three communities in Southwestern Ontario

This paper presents not only mycommunityinfo.ca (MCI) as an innovative World Wide Web (WWW)-based community information (CI) site, but also how its unique approach to facilitating online CI searching on the Web reveals through empirical data how people use such information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address their everyday information needs. The geographic focus for this study is on three communities in Southwestern Ontario. MCI collects unobtrusively query data that are logged daily from its own Web site, the Web sites of three municipal governments, and one municipal agency from this region. One year’s worth of these data was supplied to determine the types of CI that are sought through Web searching. A content analysis of a large purposive sample of all of MCI’s query data reveals more specific and diverse conceptual CI needs between and within communities than those reported in other studies employing different data collection methods. As a result, using a centralized approach to online CI access via the WWW by other CI providers such as the 211 network may be a disservice to its users. Additionally, the findings demonstrate how a thorough analysis of such data may improve the informational content and overall design of municipal government Web sites. The analysis of these data also has the potential of improving current CI taxonomies.     

The selection of channels when seeking information: Cost/benefit vs least-effort

Two models of selecting information sources are to be found in the literature. The first, the Cost/Benefit model, proposes that information seekers select information sources on the basis of expected benefits and expected costs of using an information source. Many proponents of this model also feel that expected benefits are the most important consideration for the information seeker. The second model, the Least-Effort model, maintains that information seekers select information sources on the basis of minimizing the effort or cost in obtaining information, while even sacrificing the quality of the information to be obtained. The present study proposes that information seekers place different weights on costs and benefits. In a survey of 968 Forest Service professionals, it was found that perceived costs were twice as important as benefits in choosing information sources.     

Fields and pathways: Contrasting or complementary views of information seeking

This research contrasts two different conceptions, fields and pathways, of individual information behavior in context. These different approaches imply different relationships between actors and their information environments and, thus, encapsulate different views of the relationship between individual actions and contexts. We discuss these different theoretical views, then empirically compare and contrast them. The operationalization of these conceptions is based on different analytic treatments of the same raw data: a battery of three questions based on respondent’s unaided recall of the sources they would consult for information on inherited cancers, a particularly rich information seeking problem. These operationalizations are then analyzed in a nomological network of related concepts drawn from an omnibus survey of 882 adults. The results indicated four clusters for fields and 16 different pathways, indicating increased fragmentation of information environments, with different underlying logics and active ingredients, although the use of the Internet appears to be an emerging common theme. The analysis of the nomological network suggests that both approaches may have applications for particular problems. In the implications, we compare and contrast these approaches, discussing their significance for future methodological, analytical, and theoretical developments.     

Support vector machines: relevance feedback and information retrieval

We compare support vector machines (SVMs) to Rocchio, Ide regular and Ide dec-hi algorithms in information retrieval (IR) of text documents using relevancy feedback. It is assumed a preliminary search finds a set of documents that the user marks as relevant or not and then feedback iterations commence. Particular attention is paid to IR searches where the number of relevant documents in the database is low and the preliminary set of documents used to start the search has few relevant documents. Experiments show that if inverse document frequency (IDF) weighting is not used because one is unwilling to pay the time penalty needed to obtain these features, then SVMs are better whether using term-frequency (TF) or binary weighting. SVM performance is marginally better than Ide dec-hi if TF-IDF weighting is used and there is a reasonable number of relevant documents found in the preliminary search. If the preliminary search is so poor that one has to search through many documents to find at least one relevant document, then SVM is preferred.     

Reflink: A microcomputer information retrieval and evaluation system

Reflink is a system based on sophisticated information retrieval techniques which is housed in a small, inexpensive microcomputer. The paper describes the system, along with its predecessor, REFLES. Such systems are then placed in a conceptual framework involving stable and dynamic information, and several illustrations of multiple uses are presented.     

The use of vocabulary files for on-line information retrieval

Online information retrieval systems continued to reach wider audiences. The authors discuss a particular text retrieval system and its techniques for helping the common unsophisticated user through both the search for and understanding of information based on the vocabular file concept. In addition methods for easy construction and maintenance of a suuitable data base organization are described.     

The effectiveness of query-specific hierarchic clustering in information retrieval

Hierarchic document clustering has been widely applied to information retrieval (IR) on the grounds of its potential improved effectiveness over inverted file search (IFS). However, previous research has been inconclusive as to whether clustering does bring improvements. In this paper we take the view that if hierarchic clustering is applied to search results (query-specific clustering), then it has the potential to increase the retrieval effectiveness compared both to that of static clustering and of conventional IFS. We conducted a number of experiments using five document collections and four hierarchic clustering methods. Our results show that the effectiveness of query-specific clustering is indeed higher, and suggest that there is scope for its application to IR.     

Antecedents predicting health information seeking: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Numerous reasons regarding why people should seek health information exist, but empirical evidence has indicated that factors that influence health information seeking (HIS) differ according to the context. To make suggestions based on explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence, a meta-analytic review was undertaken. In the present review, 16 electronic databases were searched up to July 2019, empirical results of 71 primary studies that met inclusion criteria were coded, and seven antecedents that commonly affect HIS behavior were examined. We obtained 204 correlation coefficients from 90 independent subsets with a total of 74,171 respondents. The results indicated that self-efficacy (ES_r = 0.254), health literacy (ES_r = 0.222), availability (ES_r = 0.412), credibility (ES_r = 0.308), emotional response (ES_r = 0.090), and subjective norms (ES_r = 0.443) substantially influenced individuals’ HIS, and subjective norms was the most influential factor. Individuals’ behavior usually aligns with the opinions of other critical individuals in their lives, and this phenomenon was observed in the present study of the HIS context. In addition, eight variables were examined as potential moderators (i.e., roles of samples, gender, average age, topic, information channel, type of publication, data collecting method, and sampling method); statistically significant effects on some of the aggregated correlations were noted for all of these variables.     

Human information seeking: Online searching of bibliographic citation networks

The strategies, heuristics, and tradeoff?s involved in online searching of bibliographic citation networks are discussed. Results from the field of citation analysis are used to describe the mathematical structure of citation networks. An experimental environment called DBASE (Data Base Access and Search Environment) is discussed and its use in two studies of human information seeking behavior considered. Variables examined in these studies included the nature of the search question and the interconnectivity of the data base.