Charles Cole

New directions in human information behavior

Introduction: New Directions in Human Information Behavior.- Evolutionary and Social HIB Frameworks.- Emerging Evolutionary Approach to Human Information Behavior.- Information Behavior in Pre-literate Societies.- Toward a Social Framework for Information Seeking.- Spatial and Collaborative HIB Frameworks.- Mapping Textually Mediated Information Practice in Clinical Midwifery Care.- Information Grounds: Theoretical Basis and Empirical Findings on Information Flow in Social Settings.- Information Sharing.- Multitasking, Non-linear, Organizing, and Digital Frameworks.- Multitasking and Co-ordinating Framework for Human Information Behavior.- A Non-linear Perspective on Information Seeking.- A Cognitive Framework for Human Information Behavior: The Place of Metaphor in Human Information Organizing Behavior.- The Digital Information Consumer.- Integrating Framework and Further Research.- Integrations and Further Research.

New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval

Introduction: New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval.- CIR Concepts.- Interactive Information Retrieval: Bringing the User to a Selection State.- Cognitive Overlaps along the Polyrepresentation Continuum.- Integration Approaches to Relevance.- New Cognitive Directions.- CIR Processes.- A Multitasking Framework for Cognitive Information Retrieval.- Explanation in Information Seeking and Retrieval.- Towards an Alternative Information Retrieval System for Children.- CIR Techniques.- Implicit Feedback: Using Behavior to Infer Relevance.- Educational Knowledge Domain Visualizations: Tools to Navigate, Understand, and Internalize the Structure of Scholarly Knowledge and Expertise.- Learning and Training to Search.- Conclusions.- Conclusion and Further Research.

A theory of information need for information retrieval that connects information to knowledge

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 sciences 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.

A Cognitive Framework for Human Information Behavior: The Place of Metaphor in Human Information Organizing Behavior

Human information behavior (HIB) is a way of broadening the perspective when looking at the nexus between the information user and the information he or she is purposively or non-purposively seeking, for both conscious and unconscious reasons, wherever it may be found (for other HIB definitions, cf. also Case, 2002; Wilson, 2000). HIB includes several sub-sections, divisions, or facets, which we will only list here (the HIB sub-sections are fully discussed elsewhere in this volume, Spink, Park, & Cole, 2005; cf. also, Spink & Cole, in press), including:

Visualization schemes for domain novices exploring a topic space: the navigation classification scheme

In this article and two other articles which conceptualize a future stage of the research program (Leide, Cole, Large, & Beheshti, submitted for publication; Cole, Leide, Large, Beheshti, & Brooks, in preparation), we map-out a domain novice users encounter with an IR system from beginning to end so that appropriate classification-based visualization schemes can be inserted into the encounter process. This article describes the visualization of a navigation classification scheme only. The navigation classification scheme uses the metaphor of a ship and ships navigator traveling through charted (but unknown to the user) waters, guided by a series of lighthouses. The lighthouses contain mediation interfaces linking the user to the information store through agents created for each. The users agent is the cognitive, model the user has of the information space, which the system encourages to evolve via interaction with the systems agent. The systems agent is an evolving classification scheme created by professional indexers to represent the structure of the information store. We propose a more systematic, multidimensional approach to creating evolving classification/indexing schemes, based on where the user is and what she is trying to do at that moment during the search session.

SEXUAL INFORMATION SEEKING ON WEB SEARCH ENGINES

Sexual information seeking is an important element within human information behavior. Seeking sexually related information on the Internet takes many forms and channels, including chat rooms discussions, accessing Websites or searching Web search engines for sexual materials. The study of sexual Web queries provides insight into sexually-related information-seeking behavior, of value to Web users and providers alike. We qualitatively analyzed queries from logs of 1,025,910 Alta Vista and AlltheWeb.com Web user queries from 2001. We compared the differences in sexually-related Web searching between Alta Vista and AlltheWeb.com users. Differences were found in session duration, query outcomes, and search term choices. Implications of the findings for sexual information seeking are discussed.

Using the user's mental model to guide the integration of information space into information need

The study reported here tested the efficacy of an information retrieval system output summary and visualization scheme for undergraduates taking a Vietnam War history who were in Kuhlthaus Stage 3 of researching a history essay. The visualization scheme consisted of (a) the undergraduates own visualization of his or her essay topic, drawn by the student on the bottom half of a sheet of paper, and (b) a visualization of the information space (determined by index term counting) on the top-half of the same page. To test the visualization scheme, students enrolled in a Vietnam War history course were randomly assigned to either the visualization scheme group, who received a high recall search output, or the nonvisualization group, who received a high precision search output. The dependent variable was the mark awarded the essay by the course instructor. There was no significant difference between the mean marks for the two groups. We were pleasantly surprised with this result given the bad reputation of high recall as a practical search strategy. We hypothesize that a more proactive visualization system is needed that takes the student through the process of using the visualization scheme, including steps that induce student cognition about task-subject objectives.

Information Behavior: A Socio-Cognitive Ability

How has human information behavior evolved? Our paper explores this question in the form of notions, models and theories about the relationship between information behavior and human evolution. Alexanders Ecological Dominance and Social Competition/Cooperation (EDSC) model currently provides the most comprehensive overview of human traits in the development of a theory of human evolution and sociality. His model provides a basis for explaining the evolution of human socio-cognitive abilities, including ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. Our paper examines the human trait of information behavior as a socio-cognitive ability related to ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. The paper first outlines what is meant by information behavior from various interdisciplinary perspectives. We propose that information behavior is a socio-cognitive ability that is related to and enables other socio-cognitive abilities such as human ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. The paper reviews the current state of evolutionary approaches to information behavior and future directions for this research

Information architecture for the web: the IA matrix approach to designing children's portals

The article presents a matrix that can serve as a tool for designing the information architecture of a Web portal in a logical and systematic manner. The information architect begins by inputting the portals objective, target user, and target content. The matrix then determines the most appropriate information architecture attributes for the portal by filling in the Applied Information Architecture portion of the matrix. The article discusses how the matrix works using the example of a childrens Web portal to provide access to museum information.

Visualizing a high recall search strategy output for undergraduates in an exploration stage of researching a term paper

When accessing an information retrieval system, it has long been said that undergraduates who are in an exploratory stage of researching their essay topic should use a high recall search strategy; what prevents them from doing so is the information overload factor associated with showing the undergraduate a long list of citations. One method of overcoming information overload is summarizing and visualizing the citation list. This paper examines five summarization and visualization schemes for presenting information retrieval (IR) citation output, then discusses whether these schemes are appropriate for undergraduates and other domain novice users. We ask and answer four questions: (1) What is the message these schemes try to communicate and (2) is this message appropriate for domain novice users like undergraduates? (3) How do these schemes communicate their message and (4) is how they communicate the message appropriate for a domain novice? We conclude that (i) the most appropriate message for information space visualizations for domain novice users is associative thinking, and (ii) the message should be communicated with a standardized look that remains relatively constant over time so that the shape and form of the visualization can become familiar and thus useful to students as they navigate their way through the information space produced by a high recall search strategy.