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Uncertainty in information seeking and retrieval: A study in an academic environment

Authors:

Sudatta Chowdhury,

Monica LandoniAuthors Info & Claims

Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, Volume 47, Issue 2

Pages 157 - 175

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2010.09.006

Published: 01 March 2011 Publication History

Abstract

This research focuses specifically on uncertainty and information seeking in a digital environment. In this research we argue that different types of uncertainty are associated with the information seeking process and that, with the proliferation of new and different search tools, sources and channels, uncertainty, positive/desirable or negative/undesirable, continues to be a significant factor in the search process. Users may feel uncertain at any stage of the information search and retrieval process and uncertainty may remain even after completion of the process resulting in what may be called persistent uncertainty. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from users in the higher education sector. There were three parts to the questionnaire focusing on: information seeking activities, information seeking problems, and access to specific information channels or sources. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the data collected through the online questionnaire. A total of 668 responses were returned from the chosen user categories of academic staff, research staff and research students. This research has shown that there are some information seeking activities and information seeking problems that are the most common causes of uncertainty among significant number of users from different disciplines, age, gender, ICT skills, etc. This is also the case with respect to access to and use of specific information sources/channels, although the degrees of uncertainty in relation are relatively small. Possible implications of this study and further research issues are indicated.

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Cited By

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Sarkar SScholer FThomas PElsweiler DJoho HKando NSmith C(2021)A Context-independent Representation of TaskProceedings of the 2021 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3406522.3446008(359-362)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2021
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Liu JSarkar SShah CO'Brien HFreund LArapakis IHoeber OLopatovska I(2020)Identifying and Predicting the States of Complex Search TasksProceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3343413.3377976(193-202)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2020
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cover image Information Processing and Management: an International Journal

Information Processing and Management: an International Journal Volume 47, Issue 2

March, 2011

163 pages

ISSN:0306-4573

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Copyright © Elsevier Ltd © 2010.

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Pergamon Press, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2011

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Cited By

Wang F(2023)Social capital or non-human sources? A cross-context study on information source selection of migrant farmer workersJournal of Information Science10.1177/0165551521105512949:5(1358-1374)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/01655515211055129
Sarkar SScholer FThomas PElsweiler DJoho HKando NSmith C(2021)A Context-independent Representation of TaskProceedings of the 2021 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3406522.3446008(359-362)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3406522.3446008
Liu JSarkar SShah CO'Brien HFreund LArapakis IHoeber OLopatovska I(2020)Identifying and Predicting the States of Complex Search TasksProceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3343413.3377976(193-202)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3343413.3377976
Tripathi DMedlar AGlowacka DAzzopardi LHalvey MRuthven IJoho HMurdock VQvarfordt P(2019)How Relevance Feedback is Framed Affects User Experience, but not BehaviourProceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3295750.3298957(307-311)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2019
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Kumar PTandon P(2018)Bionic knowledge and information reuse methodology for uncertainty minimization in product designKnowledge and Information Systems10.1007/s10115-018-1159-057:2(287-309)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
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Wang YSarkar SShah CNordlie RPharo NFreund LLarsen BRussel D(2017)Investigating Information Seekers' Selection of Interpersonal and Impersonal SourcesProceedings of the 2017 Conference on Conference Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3020165.3022151(353-356)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3020165.3022151
Shimonishi KNakano YAndré ENishida TMorency LBusso CPelachaud C(2016)Modeling user's decision process through gaze behaviorProceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/2993148.2997615(536-540)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2016
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Kangasrääsiö AChen YGłowacka DKaski SVassileva JBlustein JAroyo LD'Mello S(2016)Interactive Modeling of Concept Drift and Errors in Relevance FeedbackProceedings of the 2016 Conference on User Modeling Adaptation and Personalization10.1145/2930238.2930243(185-193)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2016
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Medlar AIlves KWang PBuntine WGlowacka DPerego RSebastiani FAslam JRuthven IZobel J(2016)PULPProceedings of the 39th International ACM SIGIR conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval10.1145/2911451.2911455(1133-1136)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2016
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