Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Information and information seeking
- 2 Information seekers and electronic environments
- 3 Information-seeking perspective and framework
- 4 Foundations for personal information infrastructures: Information-seeking knowledge, skills, and attitudes
- 5 Analytical search strategies
- 6 Browsing strategies
- 7 Designing support for browsing: A research and development perspective
- 8 The continuing evolution of information seeking
- 9 Future directions and conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index
8 - The continuing evolution of information seeking
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Information and information seeking
- 2 Information seekers and electronic environments
- 3 Information-seeking perspective and framework
- 4 Foundations for personal information infrastructures: Information-seeking knowledge, skills, and attitudes
- 5 Analytical search strategies
- 6 Browsing strategies
- 7 Designing support for browsing: A research and development perspective
- 8 The continuing evolution of information seeking
- 9 Future directions and conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Life is change; how it differs from the rocks.
Jefferson Airplane, Crown of CreationKnowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
Tennyson, Locksley HallAs more information becomes available in electronic form, more systems are developed to support electronic information seeking, and more people gain experience using such systems, our overall expectations change and evolve about the value of information and the roles it plays in our lives. In the previous chapters we considered how technical developments have led to complex and rapidly changing electronic environments. These developments include
Hardware advances in storage, processing, display, and networking.
Integration of application software such as text management, database management, communications, and hypermedia.
Retrieval algorithms and techniques such as inverted indexes, vector representations, and clustering.
Human–computer interface developments such as user-centered design, direct manipulation, and graphical user interfaces.
These electronic environments have influenced information-seeking by amplifying what is possible in manual environments and requiring new information-seeking strategies. In this chapter, we summarize how electronic environments have already changed information seeking and examine some of the constraining conditions that moderate these continuing changes.
Effects of electronic environments
To examine how information seeking is affected by electronic environments, we should distinguish between the physical and intellectual consequences of information in electronic form. This distinction must be qualified as one of convenience, because physical and intellectual changes are interrelated. Physical changes include greater volumes of information, remote access (allows users to transcend space), transfer speed (allows users to minimize time requirements), multiple formats and flexible management of those formats, behavioral actions of users, and capital investments.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Information Seeking in Electronic Environments , pp. 162 - 184Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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