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Institution:
Department of
Information Studies
Faculty of
Information Sciences
University of Tampere
Tampere
Address:
Department of Information Studies
TAMPERE UNIVERSITY
33014
Tampere University
Kanslerinrinne 1
Pinni A Building, 4. floor
tel. (03) 215 6970
fax. (03) 215 6560
Contact persons:
Jarkko
Kari
Reijo
Savolainen
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Web Searching in the Context of Information Seeking in Everyday
Life
This
REGIS
(Research Group on Information Seeking) project is a component of a larger
research project named Searching and Relevance in
the
Internet
which also incorporates four other studies:
·
Internet use for non-work needs
(Ari Haasio)
·
Researcher, information retrieval, and cognitive processes in Web environment (Eero
Pantzar)
·
Task-centric information seeking and retrieval from networked indices (Sami
Serola)
·
Developing relevance assessment of network material (Eero Sormunen).
Haasio’s inquiry
comes closest to this, because it examines so-called “ordinary people’s”
information action in their free time. Pantzar scrutinizes processes, Serola
endorses the viewpoint of information seeking, and Sormunen looks at relevance.
This study
focusing on everyday life information seeking via the Internet was launched
in the spring of 2001. Its mission is twofold.
The empirical
intention
is to look at how the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, is used
by people in searching for information, and what its role is in information
seeking in the domain of self-development.
The
theoretical aim
of the project is to develop a truly contextual model of Web searching.
At the metatheoretical level, this piece of research is most of all informed by
Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making approach which stresses the situational
character of constructing meanings.
Through the local
public library and adult education centres in Tampere, were found 8 volunteers
to represent self-developers. The empirical data was mainly elicited by
interviewing, observing and thinking aloud during November 2001 - January 2002.
The material was recorded on audio and video tape. Thereafter, the empirical
data was transformed into computer-readable text. The major methods of analysing
are content analysis, discourse analysis, typologizing, and cross-tabulation.
Some quantitative measures are made use of, too, but predominantly for the
purposes of illustration and comparison.
Jarkko Kari – Reio Savoilanen, Web Searching in the Context of
Information Seeking in Everyday Life.
A Synopsis
of Research Proposal, 2 April 2002.
Published on 8
April 2002 (some
relevant passages
have been selected).
Further
information about the project can be found in the following papers:
·
Kari, Jarkko - Savolainen, Reijo, Towards a contextual model of information
seeking on the Web. Paper submitted to ISIC 2002 — Information Seeking in
Context: The Fourth International Conference on Information Needs, Seeking and
Use in Different Contexts. Lisbon, September 11-13, 2002. (There is the
theoretical basis of the inquiry).
·
Kari, Jarkko - Savolainen, Reijo, Web searching in the context of information
seeking in everyday life: The cases of civic and spiritual action. A research
proposal. Paper presented at Summer school on web searching. Tampere, August
19-21, 2001.
Also
http://www.uta.fi/~csjakar/kari-savolainen.pdf
23.1.2002 (It has been delineated how the research questions were
operationalized and the data collected).
·
Kari, Jarkko - Savolainen, Reijo, Web searching in the context of information
seeking related to self-development: A plan for analysis. (A blueprint
for data processing and analysis).
Keywords:
everyday life information seeking – web searching – self-development -
contextual model of Web searching - Sense-Making theory – information seeking on
the Internet - theoretical framework
– empirical research - holistic approach - Web search trail – macrolevel
analysis – mesolevel analysis – microlevel analysis – Internet handling
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