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What Happens When the Untrained Search for Training Information

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Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries (TPDL 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9819))

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Abstract

Unemployed and information illiterate people often have the greatest need for information because it could change their lives. While a lot of information on jobs and training is available online, it is unclear if the target users are indeed able to find such information. This paper presents the findings of a study of the expectations of low skilled people with low information literacy when searching for information about training courses. The results indicate that users have access to technology and information is indeed available online but the users who need this information most are not able to find it using conventional search engines.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A study analysing the search behaviour of different users has since been conducted.

  2. 2.

    FET colleges in South Africa are equivalent to Community Colleges in the USA.

  3. 3.

    With the first group the whole exercise took over 1.5 h to complete, and although the users were not told not to refine or change their queries, none of them did so.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa

    Jorgina Paihama & Hussein Suleman

Authors
  1. Jorgina Paihama
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  2. Hussein Suleman
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Correspondence to Jorgina Paihama .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Duisburg-Essen , Duisburg, Germany

    Norbert Fuhr

  2. Hungarian Academy of Science , Budapest, Hungary

    László Kovács

  3. Leibniz Universität Hannover , Hannover, Germany

    Thomas Risse

  4. Leibniz Universität Hannover , Hannover, Germany

    Wolfgang Nejdl

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Paihama, J., Suleman, H. (2016). What Happens When the Untrained Search for Training Information. In: Fuhr, N., Kovács, L., Risse, T., Nejdl, W. (eds) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. TPDL 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9819. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43997-6_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43997-6_34

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43996-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43997-6

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