This is a preprint of an article published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53, 145-161. This study examines the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing people's searching behavior in the Web. Its purpose is to understand the various factors that influence peopleâ s judgment of quality and authority in the Web, and the effects of those judgments on selection behaviors. It was found that the subjects made two distinct kinds of judgment: predictive judgment and evaluative judgment. The factors influencing each judgment of quality and authority were identified in terms of characteristics of information objects, characteristics of sources, knowledge, situation, ranking in search output, and general assumption.

The educational client interface to the ADEPT digital library is envisioned as a â learning spaceâ where digital objects are tightly integrated with instruction to improve the scientific reasoning and geographic thinking skills of undergraduates. Geography faculty, acting in the work-role of instructor, will be the primary agents utilizing this ADEPT interface. The information behavior of academics is well documented in relation to their work roles as researchers, but little has been published on their information behavior in support of instruction. We report findings from our exploratory study on the information practices of geography faculty in this context. Results suggest that the information behavior of academic geographers follows the Leckie dynamic feedback-loop model. A tentative pattern may exist in the intersection of work roles and information sources. Information seeking for instruction may be characterized as passive and formal while information seeking for research may be characterized as active and informal.

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / Information overload is a critical problem in World Wide Web. Category map developed based on Kohonenâ s selforganizing map (SOM) has been proven to be a promising browsing tool for the Web. The SOM algorithm automatically categorizes a large Internet information space into manageable sub-spaces. It compresses and transforms a complex information space into a two-dimensional graphical representation. Such graphical representation provides a user-friendly interface for users to explore the automatically generated mental model. However, as the amount of information increases, it is expected to increase the size of the category map accordingly in order to accommodate the important concepts in the information space. It results in increasing of visual load of the category map. Large pool of information is packed closely together on a limited size of displaying window, where local details are difficult to be clearly seen. In this paper, we propose the fisheye views and fractal views to support the visualization of category map. Fisheye views are developed based on the distortion approach while fractal views are developed based on the information reduction approach. The purpose of fisheye views are to enlarge the regions of interest and diminish the regions that are further away while maintaining the global structure. On the other hand, fractal views are an approximation mechanism to abstract complex objects and control the amount of information to be displayed. We have developed a prototype system and conducted a user evaluation to investigate the performance of fisheye views and fractal views. The results show that both fisheye views and fractal views significantly increase the effectiveness of visualizing category map. In addition, fractal views are significantly better than fisheye views but the combination of fractal views and fisheye views do not increase the performance compared to each individual technique.

The information-seeking behavior of social science faculty studying the Kurds was assessed using a questionnaire, citation analysis, and follow-up inquiry. Two specific questions were addressed: how these faculty locate relevant government information and what factors influence their seeking behavior and use of such information. Results show that besides using traditional methods for locating relevant government information, social science faculty studying the Kurds use the World Wide Web and electronic mail too for that purpose, suggesting that these faculty are aware of, and utilize, new information technology to support their research. Results also show that the information-seeking behavior of social science faculty studying the Kurds is influenced by factors similar to those influencing other social science faculty. Moreover, results also show that accessing the needed materials is a major information-seeking activity that should be added to David Ellis's behavioral model, and that faculty examined here employ a somewhat more elaborate "differentiating" information-seeking activity than the one described in the model. Some elements of interdisciplinarity of Kurdish studies as a field of research has been discovered, however, further research is required to verify that. Implications on library services and suggestions for future research are presented.

When seeking information, children expect informants to provide information that is congruent with their knowledge and to use conventional labels. Violations of these linguistic expectations influence their behaviour and perceptions, as they are less likely to seek information from informants with a history of inaccuracy or of violation of conversational form (Eskritt et al., 2008; Koenig & Harris, 2005) and perceive unreliable informants as “silly” (Brosseau-Liard & Birch, 2010). I explored whether violations of linguistic expectations influence children’s perceptions of knowledgeability and helpfulness and whether these characteristics predict children’s information seeking. Forty 5-year-olds observed a farmer and a car mechanic label objects for a foreign child. The objects were associated with one of the two informants, rendering one as the expert, and the other as the non-expert. The informants labelled the familiarization objects by stating either the object’s color or its super ordinate category. During test trials, children selected one of the two informants to label novel objects that were either related or unrelated to either one’s domain of expertise (i.e. novel animals, tools or odd objects). Finally, children rated informant’s knowledge of the familiarization objects and their willingness to help the foreign child. Results show that children perceive an informant who provided the super ordinate category as more helpful and somewhat more knowledgeable than one who provides the colour. When labelling objects related to the informants’ domain of expertise, children rely on expertise to seek information. For unrelated novel objects, a trend suggests that perceptions of the expert’s knowledge influence decision making. These results provide new factors underlying children’s information seeking. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-29 11:43:23.22

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Yes / In this paper we explored three areas: decision making and information seeking, the relationship between information seeking and uncertainty, and the role of expertise in influencing information use. This was undertaken in the context of a qualitative study into decision making in the initial stages of emergency response to major incidents. The research took an interpretive approach in which activity theory is used as an analytical framework. The research provides further evidence that the context of the activity and individual differences influence the choice of decision mode and associated information behavior. We also established that information is often not used to resolve uncertainty in decision making and indeed information is often sought and used after the decision is made to justify the decision. Finally, we point to the significance of both expertise and confidence in understanding information behavior. The contribution of the research to existing theoretical frameworks is discussed and a modified version of Wilson's problem-solving model is proposed.

The study presents the findings of a sample survey carried out using two sub-sample populations (Rural Communities and Information providers). The main objective of the study is to explore the Community Information Needs of rural communities in Sri Lanka and their information behaviour. Fifteen categories of basic information needs of two types (â survivalâ and â strategicâ ) were identified. The nature of community information is recognized as non-bibliographic and service-oriented. The information supply position was identified as stagnated at service points, and the dynamism of the information has deteriorated within the delivery mechanisms limited to system structure. It was possible to calculate a Channel Dependency Rate (CDR) which showed that channels appropriate to provide certain categories of information were not strong and or operating as they should be. Rural citizens were also found to encounter a range of difficulties in accessing information, and it was found that these were related to geographical, structural (socio-economic and cultural) factors and personal reasons. The study proposes Community Information Centres using e-governance strategy with One Stop Shop (OSS) model, to be established at the village level using prevailing infrastructure to bridge the information gap existing in the rural areas of Sri Lanka.

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / This article presents a knowledge-based approach to the design of document-based retrieval systems. We conducted two empirical studies investigating the users' behavior using an online catalog. The studies revcaled a range of knowledge elements which are necessary for performing a successful search. We proposed a semantic network based representation to capture these knowledge elements. The findings we derived from our empirical studies were used to construct a knowledge-based retrieval system. We performed a laboratory experiment to calculate the search performance of our system. The experiment showed that our system out-performed a conventional retrieval system in recall and user satisfaction. The implications of our study to the design of document-based retrieval systems are also discussed in this article.

This study investigates the use of criteria to assess relevant, partially relevant and not relevant documents. Each study participant identified passages within 20 document representations that were used in making relevance judgments, judged each document representation as a whole to be relevant, partially relevant or not relevant to their information need, and explained their decisions in an interview. Analysis revealed 29 criteria, discussed positively and negatively, used by the participants when selecting passages that contributed or detracted from a document's relevance. These criteria can be grouped into 6 categories: author, abstract, content, full text, journal or publisher and personal. Results indicate that multiple criteria are used when making relevant, partially relevant and not relevant judgments. Additionally, most criteria can have both a positive or negative contribution to the relevance of a document. The criteria most frequently mentioned by study participants in this study was content, followed by criteria concerning the full text document. These findings may have implications for relevance feedback in information retrieval systems, suggesting that users give relevance feedback using multiple criteria and indicate positive and negative criteria contributions. Systems designers may want to focus on supporting content criteria followed by full text criteria as this may provide the greatest cost benefit.