The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to explore the information practices present in hobby genealogy. The thesis uses a qualitative content analysis to analyse two popular Swedish genealogy magazines published between 2016 and 2019. The study investigates the information sources, objects, competences and emotions that the practice is built on. Our theoretical framework is centred around Reckwitz’ ideas of practice theory (2002), and the practice theory model introduced by Shove, Pantzar, and Watson (2012). The study finds that the information practices within hobby genealogy are heterogenous and extensive, and that information is a central part of the practice. The study also finds that emotions and motivations are important parts of understanding how the practice is maintained.

Organizations can reduce carbon emissions by collecting data on what their emissions are and replace activities that are emission dense. To aid exploration, emission data can be visualized using a data visualization tool. A basic principle of designing a data visualization tool is the Visual Information Seeking Mantra (VISM): Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand. The company Measure & Change, which created a tool automating the retrieval and calculation of an organization’s emission data, has also designed a visualization tool for exploring such data. However, this tool was not created with the VISM in mind. This thesis discusses and evaluate (1) How can the data visualization tool be optimized using the design principle of Overview first, zoom and filter, details-on-demand? and (2) What is the impact of re-designing the data visualization tool in such a way? Through analysis of the dataset, user tasks, and the Visual Information Seeking Mantra, a new prototype was created. Both prototypes were then evaluated in A/B tests, with thinking aloud, a semi-structured interview, and the standardized ICE-T survey. The results suggest that the changes improved the tool, and that the user value increased. The ICE-T scores put the old implementation at 4.7, and the new prototype at 6. Visualizations scoring 5 or higher are generally accepted as valuable.

The purpose of this study was to collect design requirements from women engineers on artificial intelligence teammates such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Trello. A mixed methods research design was used for this study with an online survey and semi-structure interviews. The study results revealed design requirements from women engineers including solutions to sociotechnical issues that could arise from artificial intelligence teammates in the workplace. The results showed various ways women engineers collaborate in the workplace with and without artificial intelligence. Additionally, women engineers' attitude towards artificial intelligence was examined to identify if there was a correlation to self-efficacy. This research study fills a previous study gap that solicited design requirements from research scientists, by soliciting practitioners. Practitioners such as women engineers are underrepresented in the workplace, and they could benefit from an artificial intelligence teammate with their design requirements. Finally, this study contributes to the information science literature on collaborative information seeking, artificial intelligence design, and engineers' information seeking behaviors.

Music researchers are seldom at the center of attention as a user group within LIS. Thus, investigations of search possibilities for digitized music manuscript collections with a user perspective are lacking. Here, three digitized music manuscript collections (the Schrank II collection in Dresden, the Utile Dulci collection in Stockholm, and the Düben collection in Uppsala) are examined with regard to the accessibility of their contents to the target user group in two steps: First, music researchers are asked about their information seeking process and queries. They are observed in surveys, interviews, and think-aloud protocols. Second, the three retrieval systems are subjected to a performance evaluation by means of precision, recall, and F1 measures. The results show that music researchers are seeking information either with known-item searching, browsing, or subject search, yet the latter with considerably different subjects than, for example, in the domain of literature. In addition, while music researchers are expressing their satisfaction with the discovery systems, the observations from protocol analysis and the performance evaluation show that all three have issues in retrieving relevant documents for music-specific queries.

Information-seeking behavior is a mixture of activities and attitudes, oftentimes motivated by an individual's need to make a decision. One underlying element of this mixture is cognitive authority - which sources (e.g., individuals, institutions, texts, etc.) can be trusted to fulfil the information needs? In order to gain insight into the dynamics of cognitive authority selection behavior which is an information seeking behavior, this study explored primary source text data (316 text records) that reflected selection in the mundaneness of life (advice column submissions and responses). Linguistic analysis was performed on the data using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC2015) software package. Pearson correlation and 1-sample T tests revealed the same 45 statistically significant relationships (SSRs) in the word usage behavior of all subgroups. As a result of the study, the gap in research formed from the lack of quantitative models of cognitive authority relationships was addressed via the development of the Wordprint Classification System which was used to generate a cognitive authority relationship model in the form of a cognitive authority intra-segment wordprint. The findings and implications of this study may provide a contribution to the body of work in the area of information literacy and information seeker behavior by revealing factors that information scientists can address to help meet information seekers' needs. Additionally, the Wordprint Classification System may be used in such disciplines as psychology, marketing, and forensic linguistics to create to create models of various relationships or individuals through the use of written or spoken word usage patterns.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / With the continuous growth of health information on the Internet, providing user-orientated health service online has become a great challenge to health providers. Understanding the information needs of the users is the first step to providing tailored health service. The purpose of this study is to examine the navigation behavior of different user groups by extracting their search terms and to make some suggestions to reconstruct a website for more customized Web service. This study analyzed five months’ of daily access weblog files from one local health provider’s website, discovered the most popular general topics and health related topics, and compared the information search strategies for both patient/consumer and doctor groups. Our findings show that users are not searching health information as much as was thought. The top two health topics which patients are concerned about are children’s health and occupational health. Another topic that both user groups are interested in is medical records. Also, patients and doctors have different search strategies when looking for information on this website. Patients get back to the previous page more often, while doctors usually go to the final page directly and then leave the page without coming back. As a result, some suggestions to redesign and improve the website are discussed; a more intuitive portal and more customized links for both user groups are suggested.

Using a case study approach this study investigated how college students in Vlore, Albania seek and use information resources for academic and personal needs and whether they follow a pattern similar to Brenda Dervin's sense-making, or Marcia Bates' berry-picking information seeking models. Influencing factors studied were economic factors, information communication technologies and information culture/policy. A literature review showed that no previous published research has studied information seeking behavior of college age students and faculty in Albania. Thirty-four college students and two full time faculty completed a survey and a smaller group were interviewed. The results of the study indicate that Google is the main source for seeking information for both academic and personal purposes. College students are not introduced or taught on how to evaluate information sources. The information communication technology needs improvement to support information needs. The library as a major information resource was not apparent to most students. College students utilize berry-picking as the information seeking model and faculty use sense-making, as a model of information seeking. This study adds to the knowledge of the information seeking behavior of college students in a developing country, the need for information literacy courses at the university level, and the identification of additional areas of research regarding information communication technologies, information policy, and literacy for developing countries.

The usage of Internet has increased among children. Much of that use comes from watching videos and playing games. There are a few services that cater to this need and Barnkanalen is one of them. However, in order for the service to be usable to children it needs to be adapted for them and content needs to be easily available. Children with no or little reading ability and writing skills need extra attention since they simply can not type correctly what they are searching for into a search field. This paper explores children’s preferred search strategies and what problems they experience on one of the major websites designed for children by conducting a user study. The user study was based upon a usability evaluation method called Constructive Interaction, where the children collaborated in pairs to solve search related tasks given to them. It was conducted at an after-school center in Bromma, Stockholm. 19 children aged 6-8 participated. The results indicate that the computer user interface and search functionalities of Barnkanalen need some improvements. The children with more developed spelling skills often have no problems, finding what they are supposed to find, when they know the title of the show. When the children did not have the knowledge of the titles or could not spell them they experienced some difficulties in finding what they were looking for. Most would browse the page, scrolling through the content being presented in horizontal lists. Some children got stuck in repetitive search loops; some were not paying enough attention and missed what they were looking for when it showed up on the screen. The children also had a hard time clicking on what they wanted to click at. Only four children had prior experience of visiting Barnkanalen on a computer but almost all of the children had experience using Barnkanalen on tablets or smartphones. The results led to recommendations on how to improve the site. For example, show titles in English should be allowed to be spelled phonetically, certain buttons need to be bigger, making Barnplay the start page of Barnkanalen and a virtual assistant is proposed. / Barns användande av internet ökar.  En stor del av användningen består av att titta på videos och spela spel. Det finns ett par tjänster som uppfyller det här behovet och Barnkanalen är en av dem. För att tjänsten ska vara användbar för barn så måste den vara anpassad för dem och innehållet måste vara lättillgängligt. Barn med lite eller som helt saknar läs och skriv-färdigheter behöver extra hjälp eftersom de inte utan problem kan skriva in vad de söker efter i ett sökfält. Den här uppsatsen undersöker barns föredragna sökstrategier och de problem de upplever på en av de största webbsidorna som är designad för barn genom att genomföra en användarstudie. Användarstudien var baserad på en användbarhetsutvärderingsmetod som heter konstruktiv interaktion (Constructive Interaction), där barnen samarbetar i par med att lösa sökrelaterade uppgifter. Studien utfördes på ett fritidshem i Bromma, Stockholm. 19 barn i åldrarna 6-8 år deltog. Resultaten indikerar att datorgränssnittet och sökfunktionerna på Barnkanalen behöver vissa förbättringar. Barn med bättre utvecklad skrivkunnighet hade oftast inga problem med att söka rätt på vad de skulle hitta, när de visste vad programmet de letade efter hette. När barnen saknade kunskap om vad programmet hette eller inte kunde stava till det så hade de problem med att finna vad de letade efter. De flesta undersökte sidan, skrollade genom innehållet som var placerat i horisontella listor. Vissa barn fastnade i ett repetitivt sökbeteende; vissa var inte uppmärksamma nog och missade det de letade efter när det dök upp på skärmen. Barnen hade också en del problem att klicka på det de ville klicka på. Bara fyra barn hade tidigare erfarenhet av att använda Barnkanalen på en dator medan nästan alla hade använt Barnkanalen på en pekplatta eller smarttelefon. Resultaten från studien ledde fram till ett par rekommendationer kring hur sidan kan förbättras. Till exempel, program med engelsk titel bör kunna sökas med fonetisk stavning, vissa knappar bör förstoras, göra Barnplay till startsida för Barnkanalen och en virtuell assistent föreslås.

Die Informationsverhaltensforschung liefert zahlreiche Erkenntnisse darüber, wie Menschen Informationen suchen, abrufen und nutzen. Wir verfügen über Forschungsergebnisse zu Informationsverhaltensmustern in einem breiten Spektrum von Kontexten und Situationen, aber wir wissen nicht genug über die Informationsbedürfnisse und Ziele von Forschenden hinsichtlich der Nutzung von Forschungsdaten. Die Informationsverhaltensforschung gibt insbesondere Aufschluss über das literaturbezogene Informationsverhalten. Die vorliegende Studie basiert auf der Annahme, dass diese Erkenntnisse nicht ohne weiteres auf datenbezogenes Informationsverhalten übertragen werden können. Um diese Annahme zu untersuchen, wurde eine Studie zum Informationssuchverhalten von Datennutzenden durchgeführt. Übergeordnetes Ziel der Studie war es, Erkenntnisse über das Informationsverhalten der Nutzenden eines bestimmten Retrievalsystems für sozialwissenschaftliche Daten zu erlangen, um die Entwicklung von Forschungsdateninfrastrukturen zu unterstützen, die das Data Sharing erleichtern sollen. Das empirische Design dieser Studie folgt einem Mixed-Methods-Ansatz. Dieser umfasst eine qualitative Studie in Form von Experteninterviews und – darauf aufbauend – eine quantitative Studie in Form einer Online-Befragung von Sekundärnutzenden von Daten aus Bevölkerungs- und Meinungsumfragen (Umfragedaten). Im Kern hat die Untersuchung ergeben, dass die Einbindung in die Forschungscommunity bei der Datensuche eine zentrale Rolle spielt. Die Analysen zeigen, dass Communities eine wichtige Determinante für das Informationssuchverhalten sind. Die Einbindung in die Community hat das Potential, Probleme oder Barrieren bei der Datensuche zu reduzieren. Diese Studie trägt zur Theorieentwicklung in der Informationsverhaltensforschung durch die Modellierung des Datensuchverhaltens bei. In praktischer Hinsicht gibt die Studie Empfehlungen für das Design von Dateninfrastrukturen, basierend auf empirischen Anforderungsanalysen. / From information behaviour research we have a rich knowledge of how people are looking for, retrieving, and using information. We have scientific evidence for information behaviour patterns in a wide scope of contexts and situations, but we don’t know enough about researchers’ information needs and goals regarding the usage of research data. Having emerged from library user studies, information behaviour research especially provides insight into literature-related information behaviour. This thesis is based on the assumption that these insights cannot be easily transferred to data-related information behaviour. In order to explore this assumption, a study of secondary data users’ information-seeking behaviour was conducted. The study was designed and evaluated in comparison to existing theories and models of information-seeking behaviour. The overall goal of the study was to create evidence of actual information practices of users of one particular retrieval system for social science data in order to inform the development of research data infrastructures that facilitate data sharing. The empirical design of this study follows a mixed methods approach. This includes a qualitative study in the form of expert interviews and – building on the results found therein – a quantitative web survey of secondary survey data users. The core result of this study is that community involvement plays a pivotal role in survey data seeking. The analyses show that survey data communities are an important determinant in survey data users' information seeking behaviour and that community involvement facilitates data seeking and has the capacity of reducing problems or barriers. Community involvement increases with growing experience, seniority, and data literacy. This study advances information behaviour research by modelling the specifics of data seeking behaviour. In practical respect, the study specifies data-user oriented requirements for systems design.

Information seeking and information avoidance are the mechanisms humans natural used for coping with uncertainties and adapting to environmental stressors. Uncertainties are rooted in knowledge gaps. In social sciences, the relationship between knowledge gaps and perceived risk have received little attention. A review of the information science literature suggests that few studies have been devoted to the investigation of the role of this relationship in motivating information-seeking behavior. As an effort to address the lack of theory building in the field of information science, this study attempts to construct a model of information seeking under risk (MISR) by examining the relationships among perceived risk, knowledge gap, fear arousal, risk propensity, personal relevance, and deprivation and interest curiosity as antecedents to motivation to seek information. An experimental approach and a scenario-based survey method are employed to design the study. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted to test the relationships in the proposed model. Perceived risk was found to be a highly significant predictor of information seeking in moderately high-risk situations. Similarly, personal relevant has a significant negative effect on perceived risk and its interaction with knowledge gap motivates information seeking.