INLS 180 Human Information Interactions

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INLS 180 Human Information Interactions

• Session 7. Information Seeking Analytical
  Strategies

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Analytical Search Strategies

• Planning searches to maximize retrieval
  effectiveness, e.g. high recall or high precision
  or something in between
• Goal-oriented, systematic and formal
• Employ Boolean and proximity operators typically

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Strategies, tactics, moves

• Strategy Overall planning for how to accomplish
  overall goal
• encompasses a session (usually), start to finish
• Tactic steps taken in the search for a single
  purpose
• a combination of tactics might be used within a
  search strategy
• Move a single step in the sequence of steps
  required to execute a search tactic

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Analytical Search Strategies
Pearl growing
Building blocks

• Interactive scanning
• Quick-and-dirty or easy searches

Successive fractions
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Application for full-text, interactive systems
designed for end users?

• Systems
• More Full-text databases and systems with primary
  information
• Technological developments
• New strategies and tactics required
• Changing expectations of users
• Users
• Great diversity of abilities, characteristics,
  and experiences
• Informal naïve strategies
• Training?
• Meaning of relevance

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Wildemuth Moore (1995) Sample problem

• When seen by the pediatrician, a 3 year-old girl
  has a fever of 39C (102F) accompanied by
  episodes of severe spasmodic coughing.  
• A specimen was obtained using a nasopharyngeal
  swab which was immediately sent to the clinical
  microbiology laboratory. The swab was streaked
  onto a blood agar plate and onto Bordet-Gengou
  agar. Following 4 days incubation at 37C, very
  small smooth, moist colonies appeared on the
  Bordet-Gengou agar. A gram stain revealed the
  presence of gram negative coccobacilli.
• Part 7. With what disease is this child most
  likely suffering?
• Part 8. How should this child be treated?
• Part 9. During what age interval is immunization
  against this disease recommended?

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Wildemuth Moore (1995) Sample INQUIRER Search

• Move 1 New slot (1 term selected in initial
  set)
• Search
• COLONY APPEARANCE for MOIST
•   Result 18 hits
•  
• Move 2 Add slot, Add slot (2 terms added to
  original set)
• Search
• COLONY APPEARANCE for MOIST AND
• COLONY APPEARANCE for SMOOTH AND
• GRAM STAIN for NEG
•   Result 5 hits
•  
• Move 3 Add slot (1 more term added to set)
• Search
• COLONY APPEARANCE for MOIST AND
• COLONY APPEARANCE for SMOOTH AND
• GRAM STAIN for NEG AND
• MORPHOLOGY for COCCOBACILLI
•   Results 1 hit (displayed)

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Belkin (2000)

• Question how to guess what words to use for the
  query that will adequately represent the persons
  problem and be the same as those used by the
  system in its representation? (p.57)
• Approaches
• System-controlled term recommendation
• User-controlled term suggestion
• Query reformulation
• The issue of control

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Group discussion

• Your questions and key points from the readings?
• Under what situations is the use of analytical
  strategies most useful?
• Do you think the design of smarter or
  easy-to-use information systems actually dumb
  down users?
• Does information seeking have to be satisfying to
  the professional as well as the user? Correct or
  Happy?
• One key question from your group