The internet has made an enormous volume of information available, and there has been substantial research into how users look for information. However, there has been much less research about how they make sense of what they find, and how sensemaking is shaped by the tasks they are trying to achieve. This research addresses that gap, with empirical studies of sensemaking during web-based information tasks. Two main studies are presented, which aimed to expose the relationship between information seeking and information comprehension and use. The first study explored the actions of experienced information processors (in this case, doctoral students) as they undertook research-related web-based tasks related to their own work. The second study observed experienced users as they undertook an unfamiliar topic comprehension task. In both studies participants were encouraged to ‘think-aloud’ as they completed web-based tasks. Audio-recording was used in Study-1 with video-recording in Study-2. In addition to the task session, background questionnaires and sample interviews were applied. A detailed, iterative inductive analysis was undertaken for each study. The analysis produced a framework that models the users’ process in terms of five categories of information interactions: seeking, evaluating for selection, evaluating for use, compilation, and planning. A range of visual representations were developed to capture the user sessions, expressing facets such as how resources were used over time and in combination, and the sequences of user behaviours. Attention was given to the use of representation throughout this process. Sensemaking goals and strategies were inferred from users’ behaviours and utterances, and were related to their activity and output. The intertwined nature of information seeking and sensemaking activity was revealed, and planning (not addressed in previous literature) was identified as a significant behaviour that drives strategy and binds the other behaviours to the task-in-hand. These findings have implications for interaction design and for tools to support sensemaking.

A major focus of contemporary IS research is the emergent nature of organisational use of information technologies: its contextual, evolutionary, often unanticipated character. Most studies have approached this topic from the viewpoint of emergence in IT based practices as a process, led by social actors. However, the investigation of emergence as a property has been neglected. The systems thinking approach is particularly concerned with emergent properties, but has hitherto been poorly developed for the socio-technical analysis of IT use. In redress, this research presents a new framework of interpretive systems thinking for performing such analysis. This framework permits a researcher or organisational analyst to form an understanding of emergent phenomena in IT based operations as constituted by the interaction of various elements or factors in relations of contrariety, contradiction or association. The emergent nature of an organisation's activities may consequently be illuminated in terms of principle tensions or contradictions, that shape its trajectory of transformation, or form a persistent pattern in its functioning. This method of analysis is applied to two case studies of IT based call centre operations. The case analyses demonstrate the utility of this inter-relational, integrative framework. It supports supra-individual analysis of the shaping of significance concerning IT based activities. The emergent dynamics of integration and transformation related to the use of IT capacities in call centre activities are revealed in multi-faceted, contextually specific forms, that transcend simple binary alternatives in the appraisal of IT usage (e.g. IT is rigid or flexible). The framework's main benefit is its ability to highlight contradictions that are easy to miss, or difficult to pinpoint, in IT enabled work practices. This study's third-person, property-focussed account of emergence in IT based operations provides a different but complementary emphasis to the micro agency-centred model of emergence that has dominated recent IS studies.

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Casual-Leisure Search describes any behaviour that allows people to express and satisfy hedonistic needs rather than information needs as part of the information-seeking process. For example, individuals who search their social media universe for hours after a long day at work may do so out of curiosity, to relax or for fun (e.g. exploring for the experience). Studies have shown that classical information seeking (IS) and interactive information retrieval models (IIR) have failed to represent them because they were created observing people in work related scenarios, and assuming that search is always a rational decision making process and with an extrinsic utilitarian value. The research described in this PhD work investigates IIR from the perspective of the psychological curiosity and leisure information seeking behaviour. Traditional search engines focus the user experience on satisfying users with topically relevant information (i.e. quick lookup search and then moving on), but they are limited supporting the discovery of unknown information because they fail to entice and engage users exploration as proxy to seek enjoyment both in leisure and work scenarios. The research described increases understanding of the role that curiosity plays in IIR and investigates the merits of incorporating the characteristics and function of human curiosity in the design of IIR systems. The research is grounded by the theoretical understanding of how human curiosity works. A review of appropriate psychological curiosity literature offers a means to critique existing IIR tools and a basis from which to start designing novel curiosity driven search tools. In the first experimental work, this research compared IIR behaviour between a standard query response paradigm and a curiosity driven search map prototype using social media content, and attempts to learn lessons from the behaviour that people show in everyday casual-leisure search scenarios. In the second experiment, this research contrast IIR behaviour between standard query-response paradigm and a curious adaptation of query-response paradigm using search notifications or recommendations for news reading in a social media leisure search scenario. The tools are evaluated to determine the usefulness of incorporating curiosity in the design of IIR systems, to learn about the effect in user engagement, how users exploration is increase when motivated by a hedonistic need, and then elaborate a set of design recommendations to enhance the search experience in leisure scenarios.

Open Access zu publizieren, ist noch nicht selbstverständlich für WissenschaftlerInnen in den außeruniversitären Forschungsgemeinschaften. Neue Publikationsmöglichkeiten erfordern neue, prozessbegleitende Services. Der Aufbau eines Open Access Kompetenzzentrums in der Bibliothek ist ein bereits erfolgreicher Weg, die WissenschaftlerInnen umfassend zu informieren und zu unterstützen. Welche Leistungen erbringt das Kompetenzzentrum und wie erwirbt es die notwendige Kompetenz? Im Fallbeispiel 2 soll dargestellt werden, welche administrativen Bereiche das Thema Open Access tangiert, wie diese Bereiche zusammenarbeiten und wie sich dieses Netz für seine Aufgaben qualifiziert.:1. Außeruniversitäre Forschung 2. Das Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf 3. Bibliothek, Publizieren und Open Access 4. Die nächsten Aufgaben

Open Access zu publizieren, ist noch nicht selbstverständlich für WissenschaftlerInnen in den außeruniversitären Forschungsgemeinschaften. Neue Publikationsmöglichkeiten erfordern neue, prozessbegleitende Services. Der Aufbau eines Open Access Kompetenzzentrums in der Bibliothek ist ein bereits erfolgreicher Weg, die WissenschaftlerInnen umfassend zu informieren und zu unterstützen. Welche Leistungen erbringt das Kompetenzzentrum und wie erwirbt es die notwendige Kompetenz? Im Fallbeispiel 2 soll dargestellt werden, welche administrativen Bereiche das Thema Open Access tangiert, wie diese Bereiche zusammenarbeiten und wie sich dieses Netz für seine Aufgaben qualifiziert.

Mobile digital library service could make students’ lives easier and may help academic libraries to enhance their image by offering their services through smartphones, which are very popular among students nowadays. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework to understand factors affecting the adoption of such a service. This research focused on factors affecting the intention to use a mobile digital library within the context of the UAE and explored features and services that would encourage students to adopt such technology. The research design considered users’ perspectives, comprised a number of phases and employed mixed methods. The first phase involved designing a preliminary prototype and framework based on the literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM). This prototype was used in the second (exploratory) phase as a stimulus material when students and librarians were interviewed in 10 focus groups. Based on their comments and views, factors that affect their intention were explored and hypotheses were generated. This exploratory phase allowed the development of a theoretical framework for mobile digital library adoption. Focus group results, card sorting methodology and usability testing produced a final prototype that was sent to all students at Zayed University within UAE with an experiential online questionnaire through e-mail. This testing phase was conducted to test the hypotheses and confirm the importance of the same factors extracted in the second phase. The results obtained from the 211 respondents supported a number of paths in the proposed theoretical framework. First, Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Mobile and web experience, Distinctiveness/prestige, and Trust were found significantly affecting the Behaviour intention directly. Second, Mobility, Library assistance, Interface design, and Social influence were found to affect the intention to use indirectly through Perceived ease of use. Finally, the relationship between Perceived ease of use and Perceived usefulness was found significant. The results lead for producing a final framework for mobile digital library acceptance consisting of seven external factors falling in the three general categories: interface characteristics, personal characteristics and system characteristics. It consists of Interface design, Social influence, Mobility, Library assistance, Distinctiveness/prestige, Mobile and web search experience and Perceived trust. This research contributed in understanding factors affecting mobile digital library adoption within the developing world.

This study explored the information seeking behaviour of a group of nursing students at a single university in the United Kingdom to determine whether any of personality, learning style, or self-efficacy with information literacy impacted on this behaviour. A concurrent embedded quantitative dominant mixed-methods approach was used comprising of a questionnaire and interviews, and took place during the academic year 2008-9. Phase 1 of the research used a questionnaire (sample n=194) consisting of three validated scales (for personality, learning styles, and self-efficacy respectively), plus a section on information seeking preferences based on Foster’s (2004, 2005) non-linear model, and some demographic questions. For Phase 2 a sample (n=11) of students took part in semi-structured interviews using the Critical Incident Technique, the resulting data analysed using a blended method of data collection, analysis and display – Qualitative Interpretative Categorisation (QIC). Results from the questionnaire data (through Chi-square, Odds ratios, and Binomial regression) showed clear links between differing personality traits, learning style preferences, and levels of self-efficacy with information literacy, and with particular elements of Foster’s model. This enabled seven specific profiles and a ‘level of understanding’ continuum to be formulated. The interview data enabled an information search process model to be produced indicating the ‘route’ students’ use during their information seeking and emphasised the role of situation. Finally incorporating the student’s personal profile into the model allowed a complete information seeking process model to be produced. Key recommendations from the study are that students should wherever possible have their information seeking profile determined via questionnaire and that a ‘long and thin’ information skills training programme be embedded into the curriculum. This programme should contain a range of types of session and that can be moulded to the situation the students are in.