Social information seeking in digital libraries

Abstract

Information seeking is a complex task, and many models of the basic, individual seeking process have been proposed. Similarly, many tools now exist to support "sit-forward" information seeking by single users, where the solitary seeker interacts intensively with a search engine or classification scheme. However, in many situations, there is a clear interaction between social contexts beyond the immediate interaction between the user and the retrieval system. In this chapter we demonstrate a number of contrasting uses of the social aspects of information seeking, and through those propose, demonstrate, and realize social models of information seeking that complement existing information seeki..