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An Exploratory Study of Sensemaking in Collaborative Information Seeking

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Advances in Information Retrieval (ECIR 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 7814))

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Abstract

With the ubiquity of current information retrieval systems, users move beyond individual searching to performing complex information seeking tasks together with collaborators for social, leisure or professional purposes. In this paper, we investigate the sensemaking behaviour of online searchers in terms of sensemaking strategies, sharing of information, construction of a shared representation and sharing of task progress and status. We also looked into the support provided to them by search systems in the collaborative information seeking process. We report the results of an observational user study where 24 participants, in groups of 3, completed a travel planning task. Our results show that current tools do not sufficiently support searchers in most aspects of the collaborative sensemaking process. Our findings have implications for the design of collaborative information seeking systems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary University of London, UK

    Yihan Tao & Anastasios Tombros

Authors
  1. Yihan Tao
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  2. Anastasios Tombros
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yandex, Leo Tolstoy, 16, 119021, Moscow, Russia

    Pavel Serdyukov  & Ilya Segalovich  & 

  2. Kontur Labs and Ural Federal University, Fonvizina 3-27, 620078, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    Pavel Braslavski

  3. National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), Pokrovskii bd 11, 109028, Moscow, Russia

    Sergei O. Kuznetsov

  4. University of Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jaap Kamps

  5. Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    Stefan Rüger

  6. Mathematics & Computer Science Department, Emory University, 400 dowman Drive, 30329, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Eugene Agichtein

  7. Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, UK

    Emine Yilmaz

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Tao, Y., Tombros, A. (2013). An Exploratory Study of Sensemaking in Collaborative Information Seeking. In: Serdyukov, P., et al. Advances in Information Retrieval. ECIR 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7814. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36973-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36973-5_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36972-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36973-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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