Work tasks as units for analysis in information seeking and retrieval studies

In this article, we analyse the concept of work task in information intensive environments. In these environments information seeking (IS) and information retrieval (IR) are never performed in isolation. First, we discuss some general aspects of task-based information studies. Second, tasks are defined in three levels that are relevant for information studies. These levels are work tasks, information-seeking tasks and information-retrieval tasks. We argue that information intensive work tasks contain one or more information-seeking tasks as sub-tasks to the work tasks, and that information-seeking tasks contain one or more information-retrieval tasks. Finally, we conclude that work task performance provides a common ground for both information seeking and retrieval studies and that this approach is useful for bridging the gap between IS and IR research.