Interactive information retrieval

Information retrieval is a fundamental component of human information behavior. The ability to extract useful information from large electronic resources not only is one of the main activities of individuals online but is an essential skill for most professional groups and a means of achieving competitive advantage. Our electronic information world is becoming increasingly complex with more sources of information, types of information, and ways to access information than ever before. Anyone who searches for information is required to make more decisions about searching and expected to engage with an increased number and variety of search systems. Even a standard desktop personal computer comes equipped with numerous search tools (desktop search, e-mail search, browsers to help search the Internet, embedded search tools for specific file formats such as PDF [portable document format] or Word, and specific document types such as help manuals). A standard day, if one is electronically enabled, may involve many searches across different search systems accessing different electronic resources for different purposes. The Internet, in particular, has revolutionized the ability to search, especially in the commercial arena where we have the choice of using different search systems to search essentially the same electronic resources but with different interactive functionalities. The search decisions a human is required to make before encountering any information involve not only how to search this resource using this system but also how to choose a system or resource to search in the first place. These decisions are complicated because skills learned using one type of system do not always transfer simply to searching a different type of system (Cool, Park, Belkin, Koenemann, & Ng, 1996). Neither does information literacy in one domain of expertise necessarily help when searching on unfamiliar topics. The variability of data available, and the explicit or implicit structures of the data, also place a burden on both the searchers and system designers. How does searching within a Weblog, for example, differ from searching within technical manuals; or does all searching involve the same activities and require the same user support? As research shows CHAPTER 2