Understanding help seeking within the context of searching digital libraries

Iris Xie · Colleen Cool

34 citations0/0 files storedJournal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

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Library Science and Information Literacy Library Science and Information Information Retrieval and Search Behavior

Abstract

Abstract To date, there has been little empirical research investigating the specific types of help‐seeking situations that arise when people interact with information in new searching environments such as digital libraries. This article reports the results of a project focusing on the identification of different types of help‐seeking situations, along with types of factors that precipitate them among searchers of two different digital libraries. Participants (N = 120) representing the general public in Milwaukee and New York City were selected for this study. Based on the analysis of multiple sources of data, the authors identify 15 types of help‐seeking situations among this sample of novice digital library users. These situations are related to the searching activities involved in getting started, identifying relevant digital collections, browsing for information, constructing search statements, refining searches, monitoring searches, and evaluating results. Multiple factors that determine the occurrences of each type of help‐seeking situation also are identified. The article concludes with a model that represents user, system, task, and interaction outcome as codeterminates in the formation of help‐seeking situations, and presents the theoretical and practical implications of the study results.

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References

1992Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques.1970Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities.2000Human Information Behavior 1968Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries 1983AN OVERVIEW OF SENSE-MAKING RESEARCH: CONCEPTS, METHODS AND RESULTS TO DATE 2002Information and information sources in tasks of varying complexity 2006Transformation in managers’ information seeking behaviour: a review of the literature 2003Students' conceptual structure, search process, and outcome while preparing a research proposal: A longitudinal case study

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2017Identification of factors associated with blind users' help‐seeking situations in interacting with digital libraries 2021Orientation tactics and associated factors in the digital library environment: Comparison between blind and sighted users 2017Analysing the relationship between information-seeking and help-seeking behaviours in a digital library 2014Social Capital and Academic Help Seeking: Late Adolescents’ Use of People as Information Sources

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