The design of a dynamic book for information search

Abstract Information-seeking skills are central to many learning tasks, from finding simple facts and comparing events in an encyclopedia, to pursuing complex research questions. Electronic document/database systems are touted as alternatives to piles of paper for accessing information, yet our current understanding of how people search for information provides few clues about how to improve the design of such systems. Dynamic books are a powerful electronic transformation of information that could potentially offer multiple paths through complex information and help us actively in searching. Within this context, this paper explores how people look for information and how the design of dynamic books interacts with the search process. It also describes a simple dynamic book, based on a world history textbook, implemented in the Smalltalk programming system, and used by students to answer questions.