Introduction to keeping, refinding and sharing personal information

Personal information management (PIM) is emerging as an important research area consisting of multiple threads of inquiry. Core problems with respect to PIM include the refinding of previously encountered information from shared space as well as search and retrieval of information from personal space. A substantial body of work has addressed aspects of this problem (see Jones [2007] 1 for a review of the literature), laying the foundation for our understanding of PIM behaviors and practices and offering questions for further inquiry. Three areas of inquiry related to the finding and refinding of personal information include (1) the distinction between finding and refinding and the implications of this distinction for system design; (2) the distinction between finding and refinding in personal space as opposed to shared space and how to design successful interfaces for both environments: and (3) the distinction between information that is personally owned or accessed for personal reasons, and information that is about people (medical records, e.g.). Results of PIM research suggest that finding, keeping, and refinding are different but related tasks, with finding driven by immediate goals, keeping driven in part by anticipated use and value but based on current situations, and re-finding characterized by complex factors related to memory and to the initially encountered and current contexts. Recalling the context of initial information encounter is a powerful facilitator for refinding. Discovering ways that systems can be used to capture contextual data and to facilitate retrieval is an important focus for continued inquiry and is addressed by several articles in this issue. Problems and preferred methods of finding and refinding may differ depending on our familiarity with and sense of control over a collection of information. For example, we may use a standard keyword search to locate new information on the Web. But we may tend toward location-based methods to locate documents in a personal information collection whose composition and organization have been under our control. However, some of us may feel that our control is slipping even for the information devices we own. Maybe we are too busy to organize, or maybe the demands of our jobs are changing too rapidly, or maybe the information itself is coming in too quickly. These differing circumstances of finding and refinding call for a range of approaches such as those reflected in the articles of this issue, including creating effective search tools, dynamic organizational structures, or innovative information …