An investigation of the search behaviour associated with Ingwersen's three types of information needs

Abstract We report a naturalistic interactive information retrieval (IIR) study of 18 ordinary users in the age of 20–25 who carry out everyday-life information seeking (ELIS) on the Internet with respect to the three types of information needs identified by Ingwersen (1986) : the verificative information need (VIN), the conscious topical information need (CIN), and the muddled topical information need (MIN). The searches took place in the private homes of the users in order to ensure as realistic searching as possible. Ingwersen (1996) associates a given search behaviour to each of the three types of information needs, which are analytically deduced, but not yet empirically tested. Thus the objective of the study is to investigate whether empirical data does, or does not, conform to the predictions derived from the three types of information needs. The main conclusion is that the analytically deduced information search behaviour characteristics by Ingwersen are positively corroborated for this group of test participants who search the Internet as part of ELIS.

[1]  Cyril W. Cleverdon,et al.  Aslib Cranfield research project - Factors determining the performance of indexing systems; Volume 1, Design; Part 2, Appendices , 1966 .

[2]  Elaine Toms,et al.  Task Effects on Interactive Search: The Query Factor , 2008, INEX.

[3]  Marcia J. Bates,et al.  The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface , 1989 .

[4]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Users in Context , 2000, ESSIR.

[5]  Kalervo Järvelin,et al.  Test Collection-Based IR Evaluation Needs Extension toward Sessions - A Case of Extremely Short Queries , 2009, AIRS.

[6]  R. Kirk.  Practical Significance: A Concept Whose Time Has Come , 1996 .

[7]  James P. Shaver,et al.  What Statistical Significance Testing Is, and What It Is Not , 1993 .

[8]  Pia Borlund,et al.  Experimental components for the evaluation of interactive information retrieval systems , 2000, J. Documentation.

[9]  Ryen W. White,et al.  A task-oriented study on the influencing effects of query-biased summarisation in web searching , 2003, Inf. Process. Manag..

[10]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  The Turn - Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context , 2005, The Kluwer International Series on Information Retrieval.

[11]  Ryen W. White,et al.  Finding relevant documents using top ranking sentences: an evaluation of two alternative schemes , 2002, SIGIR '02.

[12]  Michael Keen,et al.  ASLIB CRANFIELD RESEARCH PROJECT FACTORS DETERMINING THE PERFORMANCE OF INDEXING SYSTEMS VOLUME 2 , 1966 .

[13]  Diane Kelly,et al.  Methods for Evaluating Interactive Information Retrieval Systems with Users , 2009, Found. Trends Inf. Retr..

[14]  Ryen W. White,et al.  Query-biased web page summarisation: a task-oriented evaluation , 2001, SIGIR '01.

[15]  Ryen W. White,et al.  Leveraging popular destinations to enhance Web search interaction , 2008, TWEB.

[16]  A. Bryman.  Social Research Methods , 2001 .

[17]  Stephen E. Robertson,et al.  On the Evaluation of IR Systems , 1992, Inf. Process. Manag..

[18]  Nicholas J. Belkin,et al.  Ask for Information Retrieval: Part I. Background and Theory , 1997, J. Documentation.

[19]  R. P. Carver.  The Case Against Statistical Significance Testing , 1978 .

[20]  Mika Käki,et al.  Information search and re-access strategies of experienced web users , 2005, WWW '05.

[21]  Joemon M. Jose,et al.  How users assess Web pages for information seeking , 2005, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[22]  Peter Ingwerswen,et al.  Users in context , 2001 .

[23]  Juliet M. Corbin,et al.  Basics of Qualitative Research (3rd ed.): Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory , 2008 .

[24]  Reijo Savolainen.  Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life” , 1995 .

[25]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Cognitive Perspectives of Information Retrieval Interaction: Elements of a Cognitive IR Theory , 1996, J. Documentation.

[26]  Jacob Cohen.  The earth is round (p < .05) , 1994 .

[27]  Ian Ruthven,et al.  Searcher's Assessments of Task Complexity for Web Searching , 2004, ECIR.

[28]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Information Retrieval Interaction , 1992 .

[29]  Fabio Crestani,et al.  Lectures on Information Retrieval , 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[30]  N. Belkin,et al.  Reconsideration of the simulated work task situation , 2010 .

[31]  Pia Borlund,et al.  The IIR evaluation model: a framework for evaluation of interactive information retrieval systems , 2003, Inf. Res..

[32]  A. Strauss.  Basics Of Qualitative Research , 1992 .

[33]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  User-Librarian Negotiations and Information Search Procedures in Public Libraries: Analysis of Verbal Protocols. Final Research Report. , 1980 .