this document, text or image about?' Gradually moving from the left to the right in Figure 3.1, different understandings of this concept evolve

An exploratory study was conducted of elementary school children searching a full-text electronic encyclo-pedia on CD-ROM. Twenty-eight third and fourth graders and 24 sixth graders conducted two assigned searches, one open-ended, the other one closed, after two demon-stration sessions. Keystrokes captured by the com-puter 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 sys-tem. Most searchers accepted system defaults and used the AND connective in formulating queries. Transi-tion matrix analyses showed that younger searchers generally favored query refining moves and older searchers favored examining title and text moves. Sug-gestions for system designers were made and future re-search questions were identified.

The objectives of the study were to conduct a series of observations and experiments under as real-life a situation as possible related to: (i) user context of questions in information retrieval; (ii) the structure and classification of questions; (iii) cognitive traits and decision making of searchers; and (iv) different searches of the same question. The study is presented in three parts: Part I presents the background ot the study and describes the models, measures, methods, procedures, and statistical analyses used. Part II is devoted to results related to users, questions, and effectiveness measures, and Part III to results related to searchers, searches, and overlap studies. A concluding summary of all results is presented in Part III. introduction Problem, Motivation, Significance Users and their questions are fundamental to all kinds of information systems, and human decisions and humansystem interactions are by far the most important variables in processes dealing with searching for and retrieval of information. These statements are true to the point of being trite. Nevertheless, it is nothing but short of amazing how relatively little knowledge and understanding in a scientific sense we have about these factors. Information retrieval

Essential features of interfaces to support end-user information seeking are discussed and illustrated. Ex-amples of interfaces to support the following basic information-seeking functions are presented: problem definition, source selection, problem articulation, exami-nation of results, and information extraction. It is argued that present interfaces focus on problem articulation and examination of results functions, and research and development are needed to support the problem defini-tion and information extraction functions. General rec-ommendations for research on interfaces to support end-user information seeking include: attention to multi-media information sources, development of interfaces that integrate information-seeking functions, support for collaborative information seeking, use of multiple

Textual query languages based on Boolean logic are common amongst the search facilities of on-line information repositories. However, there is evidence to suggest that the syntactic and semantic demands of such languages lead to user errors and adversely affect the time that it takes users to form queries. Additionally, users are faced with user interfaces to these repositories which are unresponsive and uninformative, and consequently fail to support effective query refinement. We suggest that graphical query languages, particularly Venn-like diagrams, provide a natural medium for Boolean query specification which overcomes the problems of textual query languages. Also, dynamic result previews can be seamlessly integrated with graphical query specification to increase the effectiveness of query remements. We describe VQuery, a query interface to the New Zealand Digital Library which exploits querying by Venn diagrams and integrated query result previews.

As experimental digital library testbeds gain wider acceptance and develop significant user bases, it becomes important to investigate the ways in which users interact with the systems in practice. Transaction logs are one source of usage information, and the information on user behaviour can be culled from them both automatically (through calculation of summary statistics) and manually (by examining query strings for semantic clues on search motivations and searching strategy). We have conducted a transaction log analysis on user activity in the Computer Science Technical Reports Collection of the New Zealand Digital Library, and report insights gained and identify resulting search interface design issues. Specifically, we present the user demographics available with our library, discuss the use of operators and search options in queries, and examine patterns in query construction and refinement. We also describe common mistakes in searching, and examine the distribution of query term...

Textual query languages based on Boolean logic are common amongst the search facilities of on-line information repositories. However, there is evidence to suggest that the syntactic and semantic demands of such languages lead to user errors and adversely affect the time that it takes users to form queries. Additionally, users are faced with user interfaces to these repositories which are unresponsive and uninformative, and consequently fail to support effective query refinement. We suggest that graphical query languages, particularly Venn-like diagrams, provide a natural medium for Boolean query specification which overcomes the problems of textual query languages. Also, dynamic result previews can be seamlessly integrated with graphical query specification to increase the effectiveness of query remements. We describe VQuery, a query interface to the New Zealand Digital Library which exploits querying by Venn diagrams and integrated query result previews.

Unfamiliarity with search tactics creates difficulties for many users of online retrieval systems. User observations indicate that even experienced searchers use vocabulary incorrectly and rarely reformulate their queries. To address these problems, an expert system for online search assistance was developed. This prototype automatically reformulates queries to improve the search results, and ranks the retrieved passages to speed the identification of relevant information. Users' search performance using the expert system was compared with their search performance on their own, and their search performance using an online thesaurus. The following conclusions were reached: 1) The expert system significantly reduced the number of queries necessary to find relevant passages compared with the user searching alone or with the thesaurus. 2) The expert system produced marginally significant improvements in precision compared with the user searching on their own. There was no significant difference in the recall achieved by the three system configurations. 3) Overall, the expert system ranked relevant passages above irrelevant passages.

As experimental digital library testbeds gain wider acceptance and develop significant user bases, it becomes important to investigate the ways in which users interact with the systems in practice. Transaction logs are one source of usage information, and the information on user behaviour can be culled from them both automatically (through calculation of summary statistics) and manually (by examining query strings for semantic clues on search motivations and searching strategy). We conduct a transaction log analysis on user activity in the Computer Science Technical Reports Collection of the New Zealand Digital Library, and report insights gained and identify resulting search interface design issues.

This research examines the pattern of Web information seeking in four groups of nurses with different combinations of domain expertise and Web expertise. Protocols were gathered as the nurses carried out information-seeking tasks in the domain of osteoporosis. Domain and Web novices searched breadth-first and did little or no evaluation of the results. Domain expert/Web novices also searched breadth-first but evaluated information more thoroughly using osteoporosis knowledge. Domain novice/Web experts searched in a mixed, breadth-first/depth-first pattern and attempted to evaluate information using general criteria. Domain expert/Web experts carried out depth-first searches, following deep trails of information and evaluated information based on the most varied and sophisticated criteria. The results suggest that there are distinct differences in searching patterns related to expertise. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are provided.