| Citation |
|---|
|
Arif, A.S.M., Du, J.T., & Lee, I. (2015). Understanding tourists' collaborative information retrieval behavior to inform design. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(11), 2285-2303.
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Search Task 1 and Search Task 2 were designed to examine tourists’ collaborative search behavior with no prior knowledge/experiences (i.e., nobody on the team had any relevant knowledge) and with prior knowledge/experiences (i.e., at least one of the team had relevant prior knowledge) about a destination, respectively." (p.2289) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Search Task 1, Collaborative information searching without prior knowledge:
You along with your friend plan to go out for travel for one month. For a better trip planning, you need to gather information about the destination, accommodation, transport, food, weather, attractions, etc. It is provided that nobody of your team has any prior knowledge about that destination or related information. Suppose you and your team member want to search information for this trip. You and your teammate are sitting in a room and using two computers separately for searching travel/tourism information on the Web and both of you have the communication tools (e.g. Google talk and Skype) installed for discussions during the Web search. Now you along with your teammate are asked to find information as much as you can for your trip." (p.2302) |
| 2 |
Search Task 2, Collaborative information searching with prior knowledge: You along with your friend plan to go out for travel for one month. For a better trip planning, you need to gather information about the destination, accommodation, transport, food, weather, attractions, etc. Somebody (including you) of your team has prior experience associated with visiting this destination. You and your team member want to search information for this trip. You and your teammate (who has prior experience) are sitting in a room and using two computers separately for searching travel/tourism information on the Web and both of you have the communication tools (e.g. Google talk and Skype) installed for discussions during the Web search. Now you along with your teammate are asked to find information as much as you can for your trip." (p.2302) |
|
| Task type: |
Complex exploratory search task |
| Task type definition: |
"The third search task (Task 3) simulated a complex situation where the participants were asked to go to a place which was known to at least one of the teammates, and several travel conditions, such as accommodation, weather, and budget, needed to be satisfied concurrently." (p.2289) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Search Task 3, Collaborative information searching for a complex task: You along with your friend plan to go out for travel for one month. For a better trip planning, you need to gather information about the destination, accommodation, transport, food, weather, attractions, etc. Somebody (including you) of your team has prior experience of visiting this destination. You and your team member want to search information for this trip. You and your teammate (who has prior experience) are sitting in a room and using two computers separately for searching travel/tourism information on the Web and both of you have communicating tools (e.g. Google talk and Skype) to facilitate discussions. Now you have to find an accommodation near the location of a sea beach. Moreover, the weather forecast should be good (say no rain and temperature is between 200C and 300C), and the accommodation should cost less than a certain amount of money (say AUD 100 per night)." (p.2302) |
|
|
|
Sahib, N.G., Tombros, A., & Stockman, T. (2015). Evaluating a search interface for visually impaired searchers. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(11), 2235-2248.
|
| Task type: |
Complex multisession task |
| Task type definition: |
"A task likely to span multiple sessions in real-life circumstances" (p.2241) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Session I: You have always wanted to visit Australia after hearing great things about the country. You might have some days off soon and you are thinking of travelling to Australia. Find out more about the country, the cities you can visit, and things to do there.
Session II: You have now confirmed your travel plans and know you will be staying in Australia for 7 days. Using the information you encountered in the previous session and new information, make a rough schedule of how you would like to spend your days there." (p.2242) |
|
|
|
Gonzalez-Ibanez, R., Shah, C., & White, R.W. (2015). Capturing collaboportunities: A method to evaluate collaboration opportunities in information search using pseudocollaboration. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(9), 1897-1912.
|
| Task type: |
Search task |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a comprehensive report on the causes, effects, and consequences of the recent Gulf oil spill. As a part of your contract, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find. To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Make sure you also rate a snippet to help you in ranking them based on their quality and usefulness. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report, no longer than 200 lines, as instructed. Your report on this topic should address the following issues: description of how the oil spill took place, reactions by BP as well as various government and other agencies, impact on economy and life (people and animals) in the Gulf, attempts to fix the leaking well and to clean the waters, longâ€term implications, and lessons learned." (p.1904) |
|
|
|
Smith, C.L. (2015). Domain-independent search expertise: A description of procedural knowledge gained during guided instruction. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(7), 1388-1405.
|
|
Wu, W.-C., Kelly, D., & Sud, A. (2014). Using information scent and need for cognition to understand online search behavior. Proceedings of the 37th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research & Development in Information Retrieval, 557-566.
|
| Task type: |
Open-ended search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Having heard some of the recent reports on risks of natural tanning, it seems like a better idea to sport an artificial tan this summer. What are some of the different types of artificial tanning methods? How risky are they? Which one would you recommend? |
| 2 |
You recently became involved with a conservation group that picks-up trash from local waterways. One of the group members told you that your work was important because it helps keep pollution out of the ocean. What are some of the different types of marine pollutants? What environmental risks are associated with each pollutant? Which one seems to be the most harmful to the environment? |
| 3 |
Your sister is turning 25 next month and wants to do something exciting for her birthday. She is considering some type of extreme sport on the water. What are some different types of action water sports in which amateurs can participate? What are the risks involved with each one? Which one would you recommend? |
| 4 |
One of your siblings got a spur of the moment tattoo, and now regrets it. What are the current available methods for tattoo removal, and how effective are they? Which method do you think is best? |
| 5 |
Many people believe that social media has many benefits to our life, but your sibling argues that people are losing their ability to communicate face-to-face and that social media makes people lonelier and more isolated. What are the positive and negative consequences of using social media? Do you believe that social media is detrimental to the development of personal relationships? |
| 6 |
For his 16th birthday, your nephew has asked you for a video game that is rated “M†for mature audiences because it contains intense violence. You are unsure about whether to purchase this game because you recently overheard two people discussing the effects of violent video games on teenagers. What are some positive and negative effects of playing violent video games on teenagers? Would you buy a video game rated “M†for him? |
|
|
|
Niu, X., & Hemminger, B. (2015). Analyzing the interaction patterns in a faceted search interface. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(5), 1030-1047.
|
| Task type: |
Simple close ended |
| Task type definition: |
"The fuzzier the description, the more complex the task" (p.1035). Simple tasks had three exact clues. "Close-ended tasks ask users to find one specific item based on some specific information, such as author, title, or publisher, and there is only one absolutely correct answer" (p.1035). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. You want to find the classic piece of “To Kill a Mockingbird†published by “HarperCollinsPublishers†in 1995. |
| 2 |
2. You just heard a pop song at a restaurant. Somebody told you the song was “Sweet Dreams†by Beyoncé. You want to find if the library has a music CD containing this song. |
| 3 |
1. You want to find the classic piece of “The Catcher in the Rye†published by “Little, Brown†in 1951. |
| 4 |
2. You just heard a pop song at a café. Somebody told you the song was “Without You†by Mariah Carey. You want to find if the library has a music CD containing this song. |
|
| Task type: |
Simple open ended |
| Task type definition: |
"The fuzzier the description, the more complex the task" (p.1035). Simple tasks had three exact clues. "For the open-ended tasks, users find three items on a particular topic. There might be more than three correct items" (p.1035). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
5. You want to find three movies that were originally released in a language other than English. The movies should be published by Paramount Pictures. |
| 2 |
6. You want to watch some recently released movies; you are to find three movies that have been received in the last month by the UNC “Media Resources Center.†|
| 3 |
5. You want to find three movies by Warner Brothers. The movies should be in any media other than DVD or Blu-Ray disk, because you do not have a DVD player. |
| 4 |
6. You want to find three journals, magazines, or serials that the Information & Library Science Library has recently received in last three months. |
|
| Task type: |
Complex close ended |
| Task type definition: |
"The fuzzier the description, the more complex the task" (p.1035). Complex tasks had one exact and two fuzzy clues. "Close-ended tasks ask users to find one specific item based on some specific information, such as author, title, or publisher, and there is only one absolutely correct answer" (p.1035). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
3. A friend recommended a book to you, but you cant remember the exact title. You know the author is Stephen Hawking and it is about advanced series in astrophysics and cosmology, particularly big bang theory. |
| 2 |
4. You are developing an online questionnaire and need some entry-level guidance on PHP programming. A professor recommended a book to you, but all you can remember is the authors last name started with “Vas,†like Vassemeyer or Vastuck, and that the book was published in 2009. |
| 3 |
3. Your dad is a war film lover. He asked you if you could help him find the movie about a group of people raising the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The movie director is Clint Eastwood. |
| 4 |
4. Next month you are taking a trip to Europe. To get ready for your trip, you want to read a travel guide to Europe. You remember you have read a good one. The authors first and last names both begin with the letter “B.†You also remember it was published in 1992. Try to find whether the library catalog has the book. |
|
| Task type: |
Complex open ended |
| Task type definition: |
"The fuzzier the description, the more complex the task" (p.1035). Complex tasks had one exact and two fuzzy clues. "For the open-ended tasks, users find three items on a particular topic. There might be more than three correct items" (p.1035). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
7. You are taking an economics class. For your term paper you want to find three resources (any type) that cover the topic of microfinance as related to small business in either Asian or African countries. |
| 2 |
8. You want to find three science fiction books published after 2000 that have stories involving robots. |
| 3 |
7. You have heard many news stories recently about Egypt. You would like to know some more background information to better understand the news. You want to find three titles about Egyptian politics, particularly Hosni Mubaraks influence on Egyptian politics. They should be either an e-book or an online resource. |
| 4 |
8. You want to find three comics or graphic novels containing stories about fictitious mouse characters. They should be published after 2005. |
|
|
|
Kim, J., Thomas, P., Sanakaranarayana, R., Gedeon, T., & Yoon, H.-J. (2015). Eye-tracking analysis of user behavior and performance in web search on large and small screens. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(3), 526-544.
|
| Task type: |
informational |
| Task type definition: |
"For finding information on one or two web pages" (p.528) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find a contact number of a rental agency where you can rent a stretch limousine version of a Hummer in Australia. |
| 2 |
What is the address of the Commonwealth Banks headquarters (city and street)? |
| 3 |
What is the standard length of a cue used for playing billiards? |
| 4 |
In what year was the Australian University established? |
| 5 |
How much optical zoom does the compact digital camera Sony Cyber-Shot W530 have? None; 3x; 4x; 100x; ..? |
| 6 |
The new iPad 2 is out just a few months ago. In what colours can you get it (the colour of itself—not the colour of additional cases for it)? |
| 7 |
How many guest rooms does the Novotel in Canberra have? |
| 8 |
The Sydney Light Rail Pass is a ticket that lets you visit many of Sydneys sights without having to buy separate tickets each time. How much does a weekly Pass cost? |
| 9 |
How many spikes are in the crown of the Statue of Liberty? |
| 10 |
Find the address of an official Audi dealer near Canberra. |
|
| Task type: |
navigational |
| Task type definition: |
"For reaching a particular page" (p.528) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the webpage where you can apply for a personal checking account on the ANZ Bank website. |
| 2 |
Find the mortgage calculator on the Commonwealth Bank website where you can calculate mortgage rates for financing a new home. |
| 3 |
Go to the homepage of the Canberra Cavalry baseball team. |
| 4 |
A friend of yours would like to buy some new golf clubs. Go to the official Drummond homepage. |
| 5 |
Go to the official product overview page for Sony camcorders (i.e., on the Sony website). |
| 6 |
You bought a laptop from Dell and something doesnt work as expected. Find the page for Dell technical support. |
| 7 |
You are interested in shoes from Nike. Go to NikeStore on the official Nike homepage. |
| 8 |
A friend is sick and shows a couple of different symptoms. Its nothing serious but you want to help find out what it is. Find the symptom checker webpage of WebMD. |
| 9 |
Find the official homepage of the Canberra casino and hotel in Canberra. |
| 10 |
Find the official Porsche website that shows Model 911 overview for Australia. |
|
|
|
Leichner, N., Peter, J., Maher, A.-K., & Krampen, G. (2014). Assessing information literacy using information search tasks. Journal of Information Literacy, 8(1), 3-20.
|
| Task type: |
Difficulty level 1 |
| Task type definition: |
"Searching for scientific publications which discuss a topic defined by a scientific term and have been published during a certain period of time." (p.6) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The professor wants to find out whether a specific issue has been the topic of recent publications. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications published after 2005 dealing with false memories. Use the term ‘false memory’ as a search term. (p.16) |
| 2 |
The professor wants to find out whether a specific issue has been the topic of recent publications. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications published after 2005 dealing with short term memory. Use ‘Short Term Memory’ as a search term. (p.16) |
| 3 |
The professor wants to find out whether a specific issue has been the topic of recent publications. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications published after 2003 dealing with panic attacks. Use the term ‘panic attack’ as a search term. (p.16) |
|
| Task type: |
Difficulty level 2 |
| Task type definition: |
"Searching for scientific publications discussing an issue which is defined using two scientific terms. Publications must meet several requirements (e.g.
publication date, type of methodology used in the study)." (p.6-7) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The professor wants to gain an overview about a specific issue. Your assignment is: are there longitudinal studies published after 2005 investigating ‘risk factors for generalized anxiety disorder’? If possible, indicate two publications. (p.16) |
| 2 |
The professor wants to gain an overview about a specific issue. Your assignment is: are there meta-analyses published after 2005 investigating ‘risk factors’ for the development of a ‘Posttraumatic stress disorder’? If possible, indicate two publications. (p.16) |
| 3 |
The professor wants to gain an overview about a specific issue. Your assignment is: are there meta-analyses published after 2003 investigating the effectiveness of ‘cognitive behavior therapy’ for the treatment of depression (‘Major depression’)? If possible, indicate two publications. (p.16) |
|
| Task type: |
Difficulty level 3 |
| Task type definition: |
"Searching for scientific publications concerning an issue which is defined using non-scientific terms." (p.7) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The professor wants to find out whether the treatment of depressive disorders is more difficult in older persons. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications dealing with the question whether age differences have an impact on the treatment outcome of a depression treatment. (p.16) |
| 2 |
The professor wants to find out whether mental disorders tend to occur more often among members of certain ethnic groups. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications dealing with the question whether differences in the prevalence of mental disorders exist between ethnic groups. (p.16) |
| 3 |
The professor tries to find out which pain treatment options are available for patients with personality disorders. Your assignment is: find two scientific publications dealing with the questions which kinds of pain treatment can be used with patients with personality disorders. (p.17) |
|
|
|
Rosman, T., Mayer, A.-K., & Krampen, G. (2016). A longitudinal study on information-seeking knowledge in psychology undergraduates: Exploring the role of information literacy instruction and working memory capacity. Computers & Education, 96, 94-108.
|
| Task type: |
Medium difficulty |
| Task type definition: |
"The information search tasks consisted of three increasingly difficult search assignments" (p.109) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find two longitudinal studies on risk factors for generalised anxiety disorder published after 2005. (p.109) |
|
|
|
Birru, M.S., Monaco, V.A., Charles, L., Drew, H., Njie, V., Bierria, T., Detlefsen, E., & Steinman, R.A. (2004). Internet usage by low-literacy adults seeking health information: An observational analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6(3), e25.
|
| Task type: |
Health-related questions |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Think of a health question you are interested in for yourself or for someone you know. Find out information about this question on the Internet." (p.3) |
| 2 |
"Imagine that someone you care about has lung cancer. This person would like to know about treatments for lung cancer. Can you find out the three main types of treatments using the Internet?" (p.3) |
| 3 |
"Imagine that you are at a doctor's office and you are told you have a disease called diabetes (sometimes called sugar). You are given a pill called Metformin to take for it. What does Metformin do?" (p.3) |
|
|
|
Hansen, D.L., Derry, H.A., Resnick, P.J., & Richardson, C.R. (2003). Adolescents searching for health information on the Internet: An observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 5(4), e25.
|
| Task type: |
Health-related questions |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your aunt was just told she has diabetes. She isn't sure what kinds of food she can or can't eat. Using the Internet, find some information for your aunt about what foods she should or should not eat." (p.3) |
| 2 |
"A friend recently started taking a drug called Paxil for depression. He seems to be tired all the time, and even falls asleep in class. Use the Internet to find out if the drug might be making him sleepy." (p.3) |
| 3 |
"Your older brother has a problem with drinking too much alcohol. He wants to go to a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Use the Internet to help him find a local meeting." (p.3) |
| 4 |
"You want to get an HIV test, but you don't want anyone to know. You also don't have any money to pay for it. Use the Internet to find a place to get a free and confidential HIV test." (p.3) |
| 5 |
"For class, you need to learn about medicine that can help people stop smoking. Using the Internet, find the names of these medicines." (p.3) |
| 6 |
"You are about to get a tattoo, but a friend warned you that some places spread infections like HIV and hepatitis. Use the Internet to find out if this is true." (p.3) |
|
|
|
Buhi, E.R., Daley, E.M., Fuhrmann, H.J., & Smith, S.A. (2009). An observational study of how young people search for online sexual health information. Journal of American College Health, 58(2), 101-111.
|
| Task type: |
Sexual health scenarios |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Mary has been hearing a lot about the HPV vaccine, a vaccine that protects against several types of the human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted infection (STI). Mary is considering getting the vaccine. Using the Internet, find out who can get the HPV vaccine. |
| 2 |
Henry recently shared with his friend that he only engages in oral sex because he does not want to have to worry about STIs. Using the Internet, find out if Henry can get an STI through oral sex. If he can, name one STI he could get through oral sex. |
| 3 |
Sarah has not used protection every time she has had sex. She is concerned about her health and would like to get tested for HIV/AIDS. Using the Internet, find one location in the local metropolitan area where Sarah can get an anonymous HIV test. |
| 4 |
Tom has a latex allergy and is unable to use latex condoms during sex. Using the Internet, find out what other type of condom Tom can use instead of latex to protect himself against STIs. |
| 5 |
Amy confides to her friend that she is 4 weeks (28 days) pregnant and considering having an abortion. Use the Internet to find one type of abortion Amy can have. |
| 6 |
Maria and José had sex last night with a condom, but the condom broke. They are worried that Maria may become pregnant and are considering using emergency contraception (EC, morning after pill, or Plan B). Use the Internet to find out how many hours after sex, at a maximum, EC can be used effectively to prevent pregnancy. |
| 7 |
Crystal has been taking an oral contraceptive consistently for more than one year. For the first 3 weeks of her birth control pack, Crystal takes an active, hormonal pill. For the last week of her birth control pack, Crystal takes a placebo pill which does not contain hormones. Since she has been on the pill, Crystal has heard from several friends that she could become pregnant during the placebo week of her birth control pills. Go on the Internet to find out if Crystal is still protected against pregnancy during the placebo week of her birth control pills. |
| 8 |
Shawn is wondering whether the size of his penis is normal. Go on the Internet and find out the average length of an adult’s erect penis. |
| 9 |
Jennifer has been having a difficult time adjusting to college life. To help her through her adjustment phase, Jennifer has been attending counseling sessions and taking an antidepressant. Since she started taking the antidepressants, Jennifer has noticed that she has little interest in sex with her boyfriend. Go to the Internet to find out if antidepressants can decrease a person’s sex drive. |
| 10 |
Amanda, a freshman at the University, is in the library studying until midnight most nights. Amanda is always anxious when she walks back to her dorm after these late night study sessions. Amanda recently heard that the University offers a campus safety escort service. Using the Internet, find the phone number for this student service. |
| 11 |
Ryan has been drinking a lot lately and having unprotected sex. Using the Internet, find one way alcohol can impact Ryan’s sexual decision-making? |
| 12 |
Julia was at a party this weekend and, after having only one beer, she passed out. Julia does not remember much about that night and believes she was drugged and raped. Using the Internet, find one place in the local metropolitan area where Julia can go for after-rape care and support. |
|
|
|
Liu, J., Kim, C.S., & Creel, C. (2015). Exploring search task difficulty reasons in different task types and user knowledge groups. Information Processing & Management, 51, 273-285.
|
| Task type: |
Intellectual task |
| Task type definition: |
As defined by Li & Belkin, 2008 |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 1 (T1): Suppose you are preparing to apply for a graduate school in your major. You want to do some research online, narrow down the target schools that you think best match with your background and interest. You also want to consider their financial aid opportunities and locations when choosing the schools. After you decide on the target schools, you want to learn about their admissions requirements. Your search task: Find two schools that you want to apply for, and save the webpages that show their admissions requirements. (p.277) |
| 2 |
Task 4 (T4): You have read that Alfred North Whitehead wrote a book, Science and Modern World, and you are interested in learning more in the concept of ‘‘simple location.’’ You would like to learn about the various interpretations and views on Whitehead’s simple location as a philosophical concept. Your search task: Search and save 5 articles, in full-text (.pdf or .html), that you think are helpful. (p.277) |
|
| Task type: |
Factual task |
| Task type definition: |
As defined by Li & Belkin, 2008 |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 2 (T2): You like and admire someone so much that you want to create aWikipedia entry for this person. Your search task: Please collect and save all the webpages and other online sources that are helpful for you to write such a Wikipedia entry. Note: for the selection of the person, you want to make sure that there is not an existing entry in Wikipedia for him/her. (The note was in the task description, and the Italic and bold font was as well.) (p.277) |
| 2 |
Task 3 (T3): Your friend is a soccer fan and he is participating in a contest about soccer knowledge. For one question, he could not answer, but he had a chance to call you and ask you for information. The question is: Name at least one soccer player who had done a hat-trick in the 2010–2011 Italian Soccer League Series A. Your search task: Search online for the answer for the above question. Save the webpage(s) with the answer. (p.277) |
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
|
|
|
Rieh, S.Y. (2014). Credibility assessment of online information in context. Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice, 2(3), 6-17.
|
| Task type: |
Information search task |
| Task type definition: |
"Subjects were asked to find information on an assigned topic and then copy-paste the URLs and portions of website content they found useful for the task into a Word document... Subjects were given up to 10 minutes for each information search task." (p.10) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A friend of yours has an appointment to get a flu shot tomorrow, but she has a cold. She is debating whether or not to keep her appointment. You would like to help her out by finding out what is generally recommended for people in her situation. (p.10) |
|
| Task type: |
Content creation task |
| Task type definition: |
"Subjects were asked to find information on an assigned topic and then write up a paragraph in a Word document. Subjects were given... up to 20 minutes for each content creation task." (p.10) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You run a forum in which people discuss various health issues. Someone has posted a question about whether or not they should get a flu shot if they currently have a cold. You would like to find out what is generally recommended in this situation and then post one paragraph in response to this person’s post on your forum. (p.10) |
|
|
|
Paul, S.A., & Morris, M.R. (2011). Sensemaking in collaborative web search. Human-Computer Interaction, 26(1-2), 27-122.
|
| Task type: |
Vacation planning task |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find fun activities for a weekend in Seattle given the constraints that each group member could spend only $50 and that the activities chosen should include one each of cultural, outdoor, and dining activities." (p.81-82) |
|
|
|
Tenopir, C., Nahl-Jakobovits, D., & Howard, D. L. (1990). Full text search strategies and modifications: The role of the searcher and the role of the system. Proceedings of the Eleventh National Online Annual Meeting, 389-399.
|
|
Wu, W. & Kelly, D. (2014). Online search stopping behaviors: An investigation of query abandonment and task stopping. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIST).
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Having heard some of the recent reports on risks of natural tanning, it seems like a better idea to sport an artificial tan this summer. What are some of the different tyeps of artificial tanning methods? How risky are they? Which one would you recommend? (Fig. 1, p.4) |
|
|
|
Capra, R. G., & Perez-Quinones, M. A. (2005) Using web search engines to find and refind information. Computer, 38(10), 36-42.
|
| Task type: |
Finding tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"tasks that asked them [the participants] to look for certain information on the Web" (p.38) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look up he meaning of the word salubrious. |
| 2 |
Find the phone number for the Mish Mish art supply store in downtown Blacksburg, VA. |
| 3 |
Find a flight from Roanoke, VA, to Chicago, IL, on Dec. 1, returning on Dec. 4. |
| 4 |
Find instructions about how to solve Rubik’s cube. |
| 5 |
Find the phone number for the Kroger grocery store in Blacksburg near the Math Emporium. |
| 6 |
Find the score from the most recent Atlanta Falcons football game. |
| 7 |
Find today’s starting times for a movie you want to see. |
| 8 |
Find the current price for Microsoft stock. |
| 9 |
Go to Dr. Stasko’s Web site at Georgia Tech. |
| 10 |
Find tomorrow’s high and low temperatures for Blacksburg. |
| 11 |
Find out the last day of classes for the spring 2004 semester. |
| 12 |
Find out how to get from the Blacksburg Municipal Golf Course to Macado's restaurant on University Blvd. |
|
| Task type: |
Refinding tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"about a week later, we asked the participants to refind the same or similar data" (p.38) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look up the meaning of the word frugivorous. |
| 2 |
Find the phone number for the Mish Mish art supply store in downtown Blacksburg, VA. |
| 3 |
Find a flight from Roanoke, VA, to Chicago, IL, on Dec. 14, returning on Dec. 19. |
| 4 |
Find instructions about how to solve Rubik’s cube. |
| 5 |
Find the phone number for the Kroger grocery store in Blacksburg on South Main Street near the El Guadalupe restaurant. |
| 6 |
Find the score from the most recent Atlanta Falcons football game. |
| 7 |
Find today’s starting times for a movie you want to see. |
| 8 |
Find the current price for Microsoft stock. |
| 9 |
Go to Dr. Stasko’s Web site at Georgia Tech. |
| 10 |
Find tomorrow’s high and low temperatures for Blacksburg. |
| 11 |
Find out when break is during the spring 2004 semester. |
| 12 |
Find out how to get from the Blacksburg Municipal Golf Course to Macado's restaurant on University Blvd. |
|
|
|
Zhang, Y. (2008). The influence of mental models on undergraduate students' searching behavior on the Web. Information Processing and Management, 44(3), 1330-1345.
|
| Task type: |
Search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
I want to buy a book named Sphinx written by Robin Cook. My main consideration is price. Please help me find one copy of the book with the lowest price. (p.1333) |
| 2 |
Each year, the US Census Bureau reports on the projections of national population. I am interested in the most current estimate for the population of the United States in 2010. Find this information. (p.1333) |
|
|
|
Keselman, A., Browne, A.C., & Kaufman, D.R. (2008). Consumer health
information seeking as hypothesis testing. Journal of the American
Medical Informatics Association, 15(4), 484-495.
|
| Task type: |
Hypothetical scenario |
| Task type definition: |
undefined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You are visiting your mother* who lives alone, in another part of the country. On the second day of your visit, she carries several bags of groceries up two flights of stairs and stops with a pained expression on her face. When you press her to tell you what is wrong, she admits that she is having chest pain. She says that the pain feels as if something were squeezing her chest. She is also nauseous and out of breath. She lies down to rest. The discomfort lasts 2–3 minutes, after which the pain stops.
When you talk to her about this incident, she admits that for the past year, she has been troubled by periodic squeezing pain in her chest. Sometimes she can also feel the pain in her neck and shoulders. The pain usually happens after she does some- thing physically active: climbs several flights of stairs, does some heavy housework, unloads groceries, etc. When this happens, she also often feels nauseous and out of breath. She also feels very tired.
The pain typically lasts a few minutes and goes away after she rests a while.
She tells you not to worry, it is probably nothing, and is probably normal for her age.
*For younger participants, the mother’s age was specified as “late sixties”." (p. 495) |
|
|
|
Borgman, C. (1999). The user's mental model of an information retrieval system: An experiment on a prototype online catalog. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 51(2), 435-452.
|
|
Nahl, D., & Tenopir, C. (1996). Affective and cognitive searching behavior
of novice end-users of a full-text database. Journal of the American
Society for Information Science, 47(4), 276-286.
|
|
Lopatovska, I. (2009). Searching for good mood: examining relationships between search task and mood. Proceedings of the 72th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. November 6-11, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
|
| Task type: |
Low-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
"Low complexity task was defined as a task that provided subjects with more information on what needs to be found." (p.4) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been complaining that he finds it difficult to get accepted due to the rising numbers of students. You were unsure if his assessment was correct so you have decided to find out how the size of the student enrollment changed over the last 5 years and how it is expected to change in the coming 5 years." (p.4) |
|
| Task type: |
High-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
"High complexity task was defined as a vaguely formulated task requiring information from multiple sources." (p.4) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your friend has just finished reading a copy of a national newspaper in which there is an article about Internet music piracy. The article stresses how this is a global
problem and affects compact disc sales worldwide. Unaware of the major effects you decide to find out how and why music piracy influences the global music market." (pp.4-5) |
|
|
|
Woodruff, A., Faulring, A., Rosenholtz, R., Morrison, J., and Pirolli, P. (2001). Using thumbnails
to search the Web. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2001 (Seattle).
|
| Task type: |
Picture |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants were asked to locate a picture of a given entity." (p.202) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find a picture of a giraffe in the wild.” (p.202) |
|
| Task type: |
Homepage |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants were asked to locate the homepage of an individual they did not know." (p.202) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find Kern Holoman’s homepage.” (p.202) |
| 2 |
|
|
| Task type: |
E-commerce |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants were asked to locate a consumer electronics item for purchase." (p.202) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find an e–commerce site where you can buy a DVD player. Identify the price in dollars.” (p.202) |
|
| Task type: |
Side-effects |
| Task type definition: |
Participants were asked to locate three or more side-effects of a given drug." (p.202) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find at least three side effects of Halcion.” (p.202) |
|
|
|
Lopatovska, I. (2014), Toward a model of emotions and mood in the online information search process. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65: 1775-1793. doi: 10.1002/asi.23078
|
| Task type: |
Low-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
Consistent low difficultly evaluations from participants in pilot experiment. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been complaining that they are finding it difficult to attain a place due to the rising numbers of students. You were unsure if their assessment was correct so you have decided to find out how the size of the student population changed over the last 5 years and how it is expected to change in the coming 5 years.” (p.1781) |
|
| Task type: |
High-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
Consistent high difficulty evaluations from participants in pilot experiment. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Your friend has just finished reading a copy of a national newspaper in which there is mention of Internet music piracy. The article stresses how this is a global problem and affects compact disc sales worldwide. Unaware of the major effects, you decide to find out how and why music piracy influences the global music market.” (p.1781) |
|
|
|
Jeon, G. Y. and Rieh, S. Y. (2013), The value of social search: Seeking collective personal experience in social Q&A. Procee3dings of the annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 50, 1-10.
|
|
Mohageg, M. F. (1992). The influence of hypertext linking structures on the efficiency of information retrieval. Human Factors, 34, 351-367.
|
| Task type: |
Retrieval tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Undefined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"What percentage of the Egyptian labor force is employed in the agriculture industry?" (p.359) |
|
|
|
Pirolli, P., Card, S., Van Der Wege, M. (2001). The effects of information scent on visual search in the hyperbolic tree browser. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 10(1), 20-53.
|
| Task type: |
Simple retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"Simple retrieval tasks required finding a leaf node in the tree." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find Lake Victoria" (p.30) |
| 2 |
"Find the Ebola virus" (p.30) |
| 3 |
"Find a hammer" (p.30) |
| 4 |
"Find the month of July" (p.30) |
|
| Task type: |
Complex retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"Complex retrieval tasks also involved finding leaf nodes, but involved either some ambiguity and lack of familiarity or a degree of depth in the hierarchy." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find a cross-cut saw" (p.30) |
| 2 |
"Find a tomato" (p.30) |
| 3 |
"Find the discipline of climatology" (p.30) |
| 4 |
"Find a lobster" (p.30) |
|
| Task type: |
Local comparison |
| Task type definition: |
"Local comparison tasks involved comparison of several nodes that were reasonably close together in the tree structures." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Which religion has the most holidays in this list?" (p.30) |
| 2 |
"Are there more fruits with pits or with cores?" (p.30) |
| 3 |
"How many North American pro soccer teams are named after animals?" (p.30) |
| 4 |
"Which digit appears in no BMW number?" (p.30) |
|
| Task type: |
Global comparison |
| Task type definition: |
"Global comparison tasks required comparison of several nodes in disparate parts of the tree." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Which Greek deity has the same name as a space mission?" (p.30) |
| 2 |
"Find a big cat and an AL baseball team with the same name" (p.30) |
| 3 |
"What characteristic can describe both smell and taste?" (p.30) |
| 4 |
"How many Bonapartes ruled beyond the borders of France?" (p.30) |
|
|
|
Hodkinson, C., Kiel, G., & McColl-Kennedy, J. R. (2000). Consumer web search behavior: Diagrammatic illustration of wayfinding on the web. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 52(5), 805-830.
|
|
Bhavnani, S.K. (2002). Domain-specific search strategies for the effective retrieval of healthcare and shopping information. CHI EA '02, 610-611.
|
| Task type: |
Tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"The participants were asked to perform eight tasks in two domains: four tasks related to healthcare, and four tasks related to online shopping. The task order was randomized within each domain, as was the order between the domains. Participants were told to perform the tasks, as they would normally do for themselves." (p.610) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why?" (p.610) |
| 2 |
"Get two price quotes for a new digital-camera (3 or more megapixel and 2x zoom). Stop when you feel you have found the lowest prices." (p.610) |
|
|
|
Pirolli, P., Fu, W., Reeder, R., Card, S. (2002). A user-tracing architecture for modeling interaction with the World Wide Web. AVI '02, 75-83.
|
| Task type: |
Selected tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Tasks for our study were selected from a database collected
by a survey of over 2000 WWW users [Morrison, Pirolli, & Card, 2001]. Selected tasks focused on finding some specific information, such as the dates for an upcoming theatre event, or specific items, such as posters of characters that appeared in a recent movie." (p.76) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"After installing a state of the art entertainment center in your den and replacing the furniture and carpeting, your redecorating is almost complete. All that remains to be done is to purchase a set of movie posters to hang on the walls. Find a site where you can purchase the set of four Antz movie posters depicting the princess, the hero, the best friend, and the general." (p.76) |
|
|
|
Chi, E., Rosien, A., Supattanasiri, G., Williams, A., Royer, C., Chow, C., Robles, E., Dalal, B., Chen, J., Cousins, S. (2003). The Bloodhound project: Automating discovery of web usability issues using the InfoScent simulator. CHI '03, 505-512.
|
| Task type: |
Help.yahoo.com tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You want Yahoo! to add your site to the Yahoo! Directory. Find some guidelines for writing a description of your site." (p.510) |
| 2 |
"When is the playing season for Fantasy Football?" (p.510) |
| 3 |
"You want to get driving directions to the airport, but you don’t know the street address. How else can you get accurate directions there?" (p.510) |
|
| Task type: |
REI tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You are planning a week-long hiking trip for this sum- mer, and you're on a budget. Find a single person tent for less than $120." (p.510) |
| 2 |
"Find the location of the REI store nearest you." (p.510) |
| 3 |
"Find yourself some warm, fairly heavy long underwear
for the upcoming ski season." (p.510) |
|
| Task type: |
HivInSite tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"What are the impacts of the AIDS epidemic on Latin America?" (p.510) |
| 2 |
"How often should HIV infected women have pap smears to check for the HIV-Associated malignancy, cervical cancer?" (p.510) |
| 3 |
"What are some safer sex resources that are targeted towards teens?" (p.510) |
|
| Task type: |
Parcweb tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Suppose this is your first time using Amberweb. Find some documentation that will help you figure out how to use it." (p.510) |
| 2 |
"Find the 2002 Holiday Schedule" (p.510) |
| 3 |
"Find out where you can download the latest DataGlyph
Toolkit." (p.510) |
|
|
|
Pirolli, P., Fu, W. (2003). SNIF-ACT: A model of information foraging on the World Wide Web. UM 9th International Conference, Johnstown, PA, USA.
|
| Task type: |
User-generated |
| Task type definition: |
"tasks derived from a task database
collected by survey from WWW users" (p.5) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"After installing a state of the art entertainment center in your den and replacing the furniture
and carpeting, your redecorating is almost complete. All that remains to be done is to purchase a
set of movie posters to hang on the walls. Find a site where you can purchase the set of four Antz movie
posters depicting the princess, the hero, the best friend, and the general." (p.5) |
| 2 |
"You are the Chair of Comedic events for Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.
Your computer has just crashed and you have lost several advertisements for upcoming events. You
know that The Second City tour is coming to your theater in the spring, but you do not know the precise
date. Find the date the comedy troupe is playing on your campus. Also find a photograph of the group
to put on the advertisement." (p.5) |
|
|
|
Lambros, S. (2005). Investigating the applicability of information foraging theory to mobile web browsing. Blacksburg: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
|
| Task type: |
Tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"These tasks were chosen because they required some browsing within the site. We did not want users to be able to complete the tasks by searching the news front-page." (p.12) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find a story describing Hungary’s support for Croatia’s E.U. Bid " (p.12) |
| 2 |
"Find a story about a trial of Nigeria officials " (p.12) |
| 3 |
"What do BBC News Viewers have to say about improving Britain’s language skills? " (p.12) |
| 4 |
"Find an article concerning one of the oldest stars in the universe " (p.12) |
|
|
|
Zhou, M. (2014). Gender difference in web search perceptions and behavior: Does it vary by task performance? Computers & Education, 78, 174-184.
|
| Task type: |
Search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How do bees choose where to build their new homes? (p.177) |
| 2 |
What do you think are the implications for human life? (p.177) |
|
|
|
Shah, C., & Marchionini, G. (2010). Awareness in collaborative information seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 61(10), 1970-1986.
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a comprehensive report on the causes and consequences of the current economic recession in the U.S.As a part of your contract, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find. To prepare this report, search and visit any Web site that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report.You may also want to save the relevant Web sites as bookmarks, but remember, your main objective here is to collect as many relevant snippets as possible. Your report on this topic should address the following issues: reasons behind this recession, effects on some major areas, such as healthcare, home ownership, and financial sector (stock market), unemployment statistics over a period of time, proposal, execution, and effects of the economy stimulation plan, and people’s opinions and reactions on economy’s downfall. |
| 2 |
The College Network News Channel wants to do a documentary on the effects of social networking services and software.Your team is responsible for collecting various relevant information (including statistics) from the Web. As a part of your assignment, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find. To prepare this report, search and visit any Web site that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report.You may also want to save the relevant Web sites as bookmarks, but remember, your main objective here is to collect as many relevant snippets as possible. Your report on this topic should address the following issues: emergence and spread of social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us, statistics about popularity of such sites (How many users? How much time they spend? How much content?), impacts on students and professionals, commerce around these sites (How do they make money? How do users use them to make money?), and examples of usage of such services in various domains, such as healthcare and politics. |
|
|
|
Tao, Y., & Tombros, A.(2014). Investigating collaborative sensemaking behavior in collaborative information seeking. IEEE Computer, 47(3), 38-45.
|
| Task type: |
Complex, exploratory topic-research tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"The following criteria [were used] for designing CIS tasks that require collaborative sensemaking: •• Objective—the findings will be used to create a shared understanding, make a decision, or produce a knowledge product/representation; •• Information need—the target information will be uncertain and vague, ill-structured, multifaceted, or have a low level of specificity; •• Information-seeking process—results gathering will require multiple search sessions and multiple information sources, or will involve learning, investigation, and discovery; and •• Topic—participants will lack prior knowledge of subject matter." (p.40) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your group is preparing for a 20-minute presentation about how the global expansion of ideas and technologies has influenced human rights. Now you may want to research the topic on the Web and make an outline for the presentation together. Please jot down the main points you would like to make in your presentation and related information that supports your points." (p.40) |
|
|
|
Sahib, N.G., Tombros, A., & Stockman, T. (2014). Investigating the behavior of visually impaired users for multi-session search tasks. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 65(1), 69-83.
|
| Task type: |
Broad simulated work task |
| Task type definition: |
Borlund, P. (2003). The IIR evaluation model: A framework for evaluation
of interactive information retrieval systems. Information Research, 8(3).
Retrieved from http://informationr.net/ir/8-3/paper152.html |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You have always wanted to visit Australia after hearing
great things about the country. You might have some
days off soon and you are thinking of traveling to
Australia. Find out more about the country, the cities
you can visit, and things to do there." (p.75) |
|
| Task type: |
Refined task |
| Task type definition: |
Used to refine information need. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
" You have now confirmed your travel plans and know you
will be staying in Australia for 7 days. Using the
information you encountered in the previous session and
new information, make a rough schedule of how you
would like to spend your days there." (p.75) |
|
|
|
Kumpulainen, S., & Jarvelin, K. (2010). Information interaction in molecular medicine: Integrated use of multiple channels. Proceedings of the third symposium on Information interaction in context (IIiX '10), 95-104.
|
| Task type: |
Routine tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity was assessed on the basis of the knowledge the shadowees had when beginning each task on the tools/services to be used on the task, the protocol to be used (‘know how’) and on the assumed outcome of the task. If all of these aspects were known, the task was classified as routine" (p.97) |
| Task type: |
Semi-complex tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity was assessed on the basis of the knowledge the shadowees had when beginning each task on the tools/services to be used on the task, the protocol to be used (‘know how’) and on the assumed outcome of the task... If two of these were known, the task was semi-complex" (p.97) |
| Task type: |
Complex tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity was assessed on the basis of the knowledge the shadowees had when beginning each task on the tools/services to be used on the task, the protocol to be used (‘know how’) and on the assumed outcome of the task... If one or none were known, the task was complex." (p.97) |
|
|
Russell, D. M., & Grimes, C. (2007). Assigned tasks are not the same as self-chosen Web search tasks. In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS '07), 83-91.
|
| Task type: |
general Web search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
For the following task, you will be asked to use
Google to search for something on the Web. Please
take a moment to think of a topic, Web site, or piece
of information you would like to search for. It should
be something you are genuinely interested in finding
or learning about. |
|
| Task type: |
local information |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Suppose you recently moved and you would like
to find the closest Stop N Shop grocery store to your
new home. Use Google to search for the closest
Stop N Shop grocery store. Please use 80012 as
your zip code. What is the street address of the Stop
N Shop nearest to your new home? |
|
| Task type: |
product information |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Task type: |
image search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Task type: |
news search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Huang, M. (2003). Pausal behavior of end-users in online searching. Information Processing & Management, 39(3), 425-444.
|
| Task type: |
search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Zhang, Y., Wang, P., Heaton, A., & Winkler, H. (2012). Health information searching behavior in MedlinePlus and the impact of tasks. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT International Health Informatics Symposium, 641-650
|
| Task type: |
search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. Since its prohibition in 1937, marijuana’s use as a medicine became
restricted. However, in recent years, some states (e.g., California)
legalized the smoking of marijuana by certain patients. Thus medical
marijuana has become a subject of contentious debate. You want to
understand the arguments for and against the use of marijuana for
medical purposes. Therefore, you decide to do some research on this
subject using MedlinePlus.
2. Over the last decade there has been increasing interest in the clinical
association between hypertension and diabetes. You want to know
what is the relation between diabetes, Type I diabetes and Type II
diabetes respectively, and hypertension? And how do they affect
each other. You decide to use MedlinePlus to find as much
information as you can to make sense of these questions.
3. Imagine that a friend of yours is studying the roles that insulin plays
in the liver and the kidney. He particularly wants to know what is the
primary function of the liver and the kidney. What are the roles of
insulin in the liver and kidney respectively, and why would insulin
be needed there? Is insulin related to liver and kidney diseases? You
decide to use MedlinePlus to find information to help him answer
these questions. |
|
|
|
Akeroyd, J. (1990). Information Seeking in Online Catalogues. Journal of Documentation, 46(1), 33-52.
|
| Task type: |
Known-item searches |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the following books:
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The empire strikes back.
Husband, C., ed. 'Race' in Britain.
Dixon, D. Constitutionalising racism: the British Nationality Bill. Critical
Social Policy, 12, 94-99.
Bryan, B. et a!., eds. The heart of the race: black women's lives in Britain.
Cohen, P. and Barns, H., eds. Multi racist Britain.
Jacobs, S. Race, empire and the welfare state; council housing and racism.
Critical Social Policy, 13.
Lesson, J. and Gray, J. Women and medicine. |
|
| Task type: |
Subject searches |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. You are a student undertaking a final year design project. The project is
about devising a fire alarm system. What information can you find from the
catalogue on such systems or any similar alarm systems?
2. You are to write an essay on trade union democracy. Your tutor is
particularly interested in recent government legislation and the response of
the TUC.
3. What are the problems of using low grade aggregates in road construction?
Haven't the Road Research Laboratory done work on this?
4. You are to do a project on transportation in country areas. What is in the
catalogue?
5. You are working with a new computer system which is programmed in a
language called ZOPL. You want to learn it. What can you find in the
library? |
|
|
|
Wu, Z., Ramsden, A., Zhao, D. (1995). The user perspective of the ELINOR electronic library. Aslib Proceedings, 47(1), 13-22.
|
| Task type: |
searching |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Task type: |
browsing |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Gwizdka, J. (2013). Searchers Switch Tactics Under Increased Mental Load. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(1), 1-3.
|
| Task type: |
fact-finding task |
| Task type definition: |
"finding a fact that
satisfied specified criteria" (p. 2) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
name of a hotel located close to an airport |
|
| Task type: |
information gathering tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"information gathering about several items and selecting
those that satisfied several criteria" (p. 2) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"finding three museums that collectively carried collections of three
different kinds" (p. 2) |
|
|
|
Yue, Z., Han, S., & He, D. (2013). An Investigation of the Query Behavior in Task-based Collaborative Exploratory Web Search. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(1), 1-10.
|
| Task type: |
a recall-oriented information-gathering task (exploratory web search tasks) |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The College Network News Channel wants to do a
documentary on the effects of social networking services
and software. Your team is responsible for collecting
various relevant information about this topic from the Web.
Your goal is to collect information for preparing a report on
this topic and it should address the following issues:
Emergence and spread of social networking sites,
such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us,
statistics about popularity of such sites (How many users?
How much time they spend? How much content?), impacts
on students and professionals, commerce around these
sites (How do they make money? How do users use them
to make money?), and examples of usage of such services
in various domains, such as health-care and politics."
To prepare this report, search and visit any website
that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the
guideline above. As you find useful information, highlight
and save relevant snippets. Later, you can use these
snippets to compile your report. You may also want to
save the relevant websites as bookmarks. Remember
your main objective here is to collect as many relevant
snippets as possible. |
|
| Task type: |
a utility-based decision-making task (exploratory web search tasks) |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You and your friend are planning a four-day vacation in
Helsinki, Finland from Dec 23th - 26th. You want to search
for information about how you will spend your vacation in
Finland. Assume that your flights are booked (leaving the
US on the 22th of Dec and returning to the US on the 27th
of Dec) and your hotels are booked too. But you have not
yet planned the activities for your vacation. Your goal is to
come up with a travel plan of things you will be doing on
your vacation. You have certain constraints as follows:
You can only spend 200 Euros (100 Euros per person).
Of all the activities your group chooses for the
vacation, one has to be an outdoor activity, the other is a
dining activity, and the third is a cultural activity. You are
free to choose any other types of activities in addition to
these three.
As you find useful information, highlight and save
relevant snippets. Later, you can use these snippets to
compile your travel plan. You may also want to save the
relevant websites as bookmarks. |
|
|
|
J.R. Rinewalt. (1977). Feature evalution of a full-text information-retrieval system. Online Information Review, 1(1), 43 - 52.
|
|
Dalrymple, P. W. & Zweizig, D. L. (1992). Users' Experience of Information Retrieval Systems: An Exploration of the Relationship between Search Experience and Affective Measures. Library & Information Science Research, 14(2), 167-181.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Allen B. (1998). Designing information systems for user abilities and tasks: An experimental study. Online and CD-ROM review, 22(3), 139-153.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. A few minutes ago you read an article on a topic. Now, assume that you are working a term paper assignment for one of your classes, which requires you to complete a 10-page paper on this topic. TO do this, you want to find additional information about the topic. You will be searching an experimental information retrieval system to find a few good articles about the topic that you can include in your term paper.
2. A few minutes ago you read an article on a topic. Now assume that you have been asked to write an article in the student newspaper on this topic. TO do this, you want to find additional information about the topic. You will be searching an experimental information retrieval system to find as many articles as you an about the topic so that you can write a well-informed article. |
|
|
|
Shah, C. & Gonzalez-Ibanez, R. (2011). Evaluating the synergic effect of collaboration in information seeking. Proceedings of the 34th international ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and development in Information Retrieval, 913-922.
|
| Task type: |
recall-oriented exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a
comprehensive report on the causes, effects, and consequences of
the recent gulf oil spill. As a part of your contract, you are
required to collect all the relevant information from any available
online sources that you can find.
To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want
and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As
you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets.
Make sure you also rate a snippet to help you in ranking them
based on their quality and usefulness. Later, you can use these
snippets to compile your report, no longer than 200 lines, as
instructed.
Your report on this topic should address the following issues:
description of how the oil spill took place, reactions by BP as well
as various government and other agencies, impact on economy
and life (people and animals) in the gulf, attempts to fix the
leaking well and to clean the waters, long-term implications and
lessons learned.” |
|
|
|
Lagun, D. & Agichtein, E. (2011). ViewSer: enabling large-scale remote user studies of web search examination and interaction. In Proceedings of the 34th international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in Information Retrieval, 365-374.
|
| Task type: |
search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find information on buying, installing, and repairing toilets.
Find information about Mitchell College in New London, CT, such as a prospective student might fi nd useful.
I'm looking for cheap (i.e. low-cost) internet service.
I'm looking for various sports scores and information from the ESPN Sports site.
Find information on the Greek mathematician Euclid. |
|
|
|
Mu, X., Lu, K., & Ryu, H. (2010). Search strategies on a new health information retrieval system. Online Information Review, 34(3), 440 - 456.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
(1) You are a 60-year-old menopausal woman without hormone replacement therapy. You
want to know if there are adverse effects on lipids when progesterone is given with
estrogen replacement therapy.
(2) You are a patient with cerebral palsy and depression. You want to know about the
relationship between cerebral palsy and depression.
(3) You have diabetic gastroparesis. You want to know what the best treatment is for
diabetic gastroparesis.
(4) You are a patient with a migraine. You want to know about the treatment of migraine
headaches with beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers.
(5) You are a 50-year-old person with COPD. You want to know how theophylline should be
used for chronic and acute asthma.
(6) You are a 60-year-old man with severe malabsorption. You want to know about the
processes of infiltrative small bowel and information about small bowel lymphoma and
heavy alpha chain disease. |
|
|
|
Pu, H. (2010). User evaluation of textual results clustering for web search. Online Information Review, 34(6), 855 - 874.
|
| Task type: |
closed information search |
| Task type definition: |
"the task focuses on finding a specific piece of information (closed)" (p. 861) |
| Task type: |
exploratory (open) search |
| Task type definition: |
"it is more exploratory in nature (open)." (p. 861) |
|
|
Hariri, N. (2011). Relevance ranking on Google: Are top ranked results really considered more relevant by the users? Online Information Review, 35(4), 598 - 610.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Lopes, T. C. & Ribeiro, C. (2011). Comparative evaluation of web search engines in health information retrieval. Online Information Review, 35(6), 869 - 892.
|
| Task type: |
work task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
|
|
Burt, M. & Liew, C. L. (2012). Searching with clustering: An investigation into the effects on users' search experience and satisfaction. Online Information Review, 36(2), 278 - 298.
|
| Task type: |
keyword searching |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"A search was performed for “salsa”: this word was chosen due to the possibility of multiple meanings (dance, sauce, music)." (p. 285)
"Participants were then asked to perform a short search on any topic of interest to them." (p. 285)
"Following this, participants were asked to spend 20 minutes searching for a job and for accommodation in a city of their choice."(p. 285) |
|
|
|
Bar-Ilan, J., Zhitomirsky-Geffet, M., Miller, Y., & Shoham, S. (2012). Tag-based retrieval of images through different interfaces: a user study. Online Information Review, 36(5), 739 - 757.
|
| Task type: |
Image search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
S1. The forefathers: The place of the forefathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – in Jewish
and world art
S2. Jewish symbols: The appearance of Jewish symbols around the world. The emphasis in
this project is on the geographic aspect
S3. Prayer: The prayer has a central place in the life of religious Jews. Your project
should deal with different aspects of the prayer: places where it takes
place, prayer texts, etc,
S4. Jewish/Israeli figures: Characters and figures that make up the Jewish/Israeli existence in
recent generations. The figures can be either unknown or famous
S5. Historical events
Major events in the history of the Jewish people. The time span
includes biblical times, through the Middle Ages, the establishment of
the State of Israel and recent times
S6. Jewish holiday food: Traditional food for Jewish holidays
S7. Head coverings: In the Jewish religion, head coverings symbolise respect for God and
modesty
S8. Jewish settlements: Jewish settlements before and after the establishment of the State of
Israel
S9. Jewish life cycle: Major ceremonies in Jewish life: Brith Mila, Bar and Bat Mitzva and
marriage
S10. Haggadah: The Passover Haggadah is one of the better known Jewish texts.
Illustrate your project with Haggadahs that were printed before the
establishment of the State of Israel
|
|
|
|
Kim, J. & Can, A. (2012). Characterizing Queries in Different Search Tasks. In Proceedings of 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 1697 - 1706.
|
| Task type: |
directed-closed search |
| Task type definition: |
"I want
to get an
answer to a
question that
has a single,
unambiguous
answer." (p. 1699) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“You plan to visit San
Francisco next week. One
of your friends who has
been there suggests that
you visit the oldest
seafood restaurant in
town. You want to know
the name of the
restaurant.” |
|
| Task type: |
directed - open search |
| Task type definition: |
"I want to get
an answer to
an open
-
ended
question, or
one with
unconstrained
depth." (p. 1699) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Your cousin, a
typical
teenage girl, said that one
of her friends had started
to smoke. You fear your
cousin might begin
smoking in the near future
and decide to educate her,
so you have to
find
some
information on what could
happen if she starts
smoking.” |
|
| Task type: |
undirected search |
| Task type definition: |
"I want to learn
anything/every
thing about
my topic." (p. 1699) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“You have recently
moved to Boston and you
are interested in buying a
home. You have heard
that most homes built
before 1978 have some
lead paint, but that their
paint status is often
repor
ted as “unknown.”
You think you should
learn about lead paint and
housing. The web seems
like a good place to locate
this information.” |
|
|
|
Phillips, A.H., Yang, R., & Djamasbi, S. (2013). Do ads matter? An exploration of web search behavior, visual hierarchy, and search engine results pages. In Proceedings of 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 1563 - 1568.
|
| Task type: |
Web search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"In task 1, participants were asked to use the key words “free screen recording software”
to find free screen recording software that they would
use for their coursework. In task 2, participants were
asked to use the key words “best snack in Boston” to
find a snack place in Boston that they would like to
visit with their friends." (p. 1565) |
|
|
|
Wildemuth, B. M., Oh, J. S., & Marchionini, G. (2010). Tactics used when searching for digital video. In Proceedings of the third symposium on Information interaction in context, 255-264.
|
| Task type: |
video search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Imagine that you are an emergency response officer in
California and that you are developing an online tutorial on
how to respond to an earthquake. You would like to
illustrate the tutorial with video showing the damage that can
be caused by an earthquake. (concrete; for production)
Imagine that you are a geography professor and are
developing a presentation for your introductory class on the
differing roles of rivers. You’d like to show clips from
recent videos (since 1990) of several different rivers.
(concrete; for viewing)
Imagine that you are a video enthusiast, having studied video
production techniques since you were in your teens. You are
interested in creating a montage of a selection of the really
early films from the Open Video collection that are most
popular with users of the site. (abstract; for production)
Imagine that you are a history professor, teaching a course
on the history of technology in the U.S. You want to find
some footage that illustrates America’s growing obsession
with cars/automobiles between 1930 and 1950. (abstract; for
viewing) |
|
|
|
Diriye, A., Blandford, A., & Tombros, A. (2010). When is system support effective?. In Proceedings of the third symposium on Information interaction in context, 55-64.
|
| Task type: |
known-item search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"searchers were required to iden-
tify a known piece of information" (p. 57) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. Identify three incidents of human smuggling.
2. Identify three positive achievements of the Hubble telescope
since its launch in 1991. |
|
| Task type: |
exploratory search task |
| Task type definition: |
"the objective was to address a general topic" (p. 57) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. You have to plan a ve-day vacation along the west coast of
Italy. You want to nd out what are the must-see sightseeing spots
along the Italian west coast, and learn about Italian wine and the
best vineyards in Tuscany to visit on your trip.
2. You've been given an assignment in class on racial pro l-
ing, and are expected to write a paper on it. You decide to begin
by trying to understand what racial pro ling is, and explore and
examine the issues, organisations and laws concerning it. |
|
|
|
Chu, P., Jozsa, E., Komlodi, A., & Hercegfi, K. (2012). An exploratory study on search behavior in different languages. In Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context Symposium, 318-321.
|
| Task type: |
own-item information-seeking |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Participants had to find the CEO of IBM." (p. 319) |
|
| Task type: |
subject driven medium-complexity tasks |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"One of your friends spends his/her holiday in
[destination varied based on the participant group as shown in
Table 1] with his/her spouse and children ages six and eight......
He/she asks you to make some suggestions on what they should
do on those two days......" (p. 319) |
|
|
|
Clark, M., Ruthven, I., O'Brian Holt, P., & Song, D. (2012). Looking for genre: the use of structural features during search tasks with Wikipedia. In Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context Symposium, 145-154
|
| Task type: |
simulated work/situation task |
| Task type definition: |
"that were related to typical tasks to reflect similar participants’ needs and were therefore representative of some of the most commonly submitted queries." (p. 147) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1.
You are joining a debating society and need some
notes to make a PowerPoint presentation on the first
topic, which is: “Cannabis: Good or Ba
d?” Since
being made illegal in the UK in 1928 and since the
introduction of the 1971 Dangerous Drugs Act, the use
of
cannabis for medicinal reasons has been restricted.
However, in recent years, some countries (for
example,
Austria)
have legalized the
smo
king/ingesting of cannabis by certain patients for
pain relief and other medicinal benefits. Thus ‘medical
cannabis’ has bec
ome a topic of hot debate. You want
to understand the arguments for and against the use of
marijuana for medical purposes. Therefore
, you decide
to do some preliminary research on this subject using
Wikipedia. What are the possible health benefits and
heal
th problems that may entail from
smoking/ingesting cannabis for medical reasons?
2.
You have been tasked to write an essay on the Arab
Spring which started to be reported in late 2010. The
beginning of the so
-
called ‘Arab Spring’ led to a huge
wave of demonstrations and uprisings in at least 17
countries that has resulted in many long
-
standing
military regimes being overthrown and, in some cases,
in civil war. Use Wikipedia to find out some useful
information that you feel is appropriate and can be
used later to form a basis for the essay. For example,
the countries involved and so on.
3.
You are in the third year of a social studies degree
and
have been given coursework on the topic of
‘Philanthropy’. On the 4
th
August 2010,
thirty
-
eight
US billionaire philanthropists pledged at least 50% of
their wealth to charity through a campaign started by
the investor, Warren Buffet, and the Microsoft
founder, Bill Gates. Some of those who have signed
the pledge include Michael Bloomberg and George
Lucas. Many mentioned in ‘The Giving Pledge’
project are among the most influential people in the
contemporary United States and debatably the world.
Your co
ursework states that you have to carry out an
investigation to find out who you think is the most
influential philanthropist
in the pledge group.
4.
You are working for ITN
n
ews as an intern. There has
been a major air crash at an international airport. The
n
ews editor wants you to search for background
information on the previous top two worst air disasters
in history, such as the numbers of fatalities, casualties
and so on. She also wants to know the names of
airlines with the best and worst safety records.
5.
You are on work experience at the sports desk at The
Guardian newspaper and have been asked by the
editor to collect information on the two rival teams,
Boca Juniors and River Plate, as they face each other
in the Argentine Cup Final. Use Wikipedia to find
out
appropriate information about each club, such as the
stadiums, star players and the managers of each team.
6.
You are in the third year of a political studies’ degree
course and have been given coursework on studying
the legislature in an African country
.
You decide to
focus on Namibia. Collect information about the
Parliament,
National Council of Namibia, National
Assembly and any other information you think is
relevant to form the basis of your work. |
|
|
|
Gonzalez-Ibanez, R., Shah, C. & Cordova-Rubio, N. (2011). Smile! Studying expressivity of happiness as a synergic factor in collaborative information seeking. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 48, 1-10.
|
| Task type: |
recall-oriented exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a comprehensive report on the causes, effects, and consequences of the recent gulf oil spill. As a part of your contract, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find.
To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Make sure you also rate a snippet to help you in ranking them based on their quality and usefulness. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report, no longer than 200 lines, as instructed.
Your report on this topic should address the following issues: description of how the oil spill took place, reactions by BP as well as various government and other agencies, impact on economy and life (people and animals) in the gulf, attempts to fix the leaking well and to clean the waters, long-term implications and lessons learned.” |
|
|
|
O'Brien, H. L. (2011). Exploring user engagement in online news interactions. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 48, 1-10.
|
| Task type: |
online news task, a simulated task |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You will be attending a social gathering this evening. It is a birthday party for a friend being held at a local restaurant. You do not know many of the guests in attendance. You thought it might facilitate meeting new people and taking part in conversations if you were up-to-date on some recent news. You decide to browse the CBC news website to see if there are any interesting items. You only have about 20 minutes before you have to start getting ready for the party. You decide that looking at one article might not give enough variety of information since you do not know the interests and backgrounds of the other guests. In the end, you determine that three articles would give you enough things to bring up in conversation. |
|
| Task type: |
Simluated task scenario |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined; based on Borlund's specifications |
|
|
Saparova, D. (2012). Information needs and search characteristics of first-year medical students. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49, 1-4.
|
| Task type: |
“known-item” search |
| Task type definition: |
"Known-item search tasks required the searcher to obtain a piece of information that was known to exist and provide a specific answer to the question." (p. 2) |
| Task type: |
“subject” search |
| Task type definition: |
"Subject search tasks required the searcher to find different pieces of information that were related to the subject and considered useful in answering the question." (p. 2) |
|
|
Shah, C., Liu, J., Gonzalez-Ibanez, R., & Belkin, N. (2012). Exploration of dynamic query suggestions and dynamic search results for their effects on search behaviors. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1): 1-10.
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“As a history buff, you have heard of the quiet revolution, the peaceful revolution, and the velvet revolution. For a skill-testing question to win an iPod you have been asked how they differ from the April 19th revolution.
Search and visit any websites that help you find information on this topic. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Make sure you also rate a snippet to help you in ranking them based on their quality and usefulness.
You have 25 minutes to read this task description, and collect information (snippets) from any online sources, and using any search engines you wish.” |
|
|
|
Gonzalez-Ibanez, R., Haseki, M. & Shah, C. (2012). Time and space in collaborative information seeking: The clash of effectiveness and uniqueness. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1): 1-10.
|
| Task type: |
collaborative exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a comprehensive report on the causes, effects, and consequences of the recent gulf oil spill. As a part of your contract, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find. To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want, and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Make sure you also rate a snippet to help you in ranking them based on their quality and usefulness. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report, no longer than 200 lines, as instructed. Your report on this topic should address the following issues: description of how the oil spill took place, reactions by BP as well as various government and other agencies, impact on economy and life (people and animals) in the gulf, attempts to fix the leaking well and to clean the waters, long-term implications and lessons learned.” |
|
|
|
Hoeber, O. (2013). A longitudinal study of HotMap web search. Online Information Review, 37(2): 252-267.
|
|
Lagun, D., Sud, A., White, R. W., Bailey, P., & Buscher, G. (2013). Explicit feedback in local search tasks. In Proceedings of the 36th international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval, 1065-1068.
|
| Task type: |
pre-defined exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
undefined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
City-level Task:
“You are temporarily living in Boston,
Massachusetts (MA) and would like to learn or improve French
as a foreign language. Find at least 4 Web sites that offer French
courses in Boston (no online courses).”
Initial Query = [French courses]. User Location=Boston, MA.
State-Level Task:
“You are on a road trip in Virginia State
(VA) with some wine loving friends. Find 4 vineyards in
Virginia and note down 2 wines from each vineyard.”
Initial Query = [vineyard], User Location=VA |
|
|
|
Emmanuel, J. (2011). Usability of the VuFind Next-Generation Online Catalog. Information Technology and Libraries, 30(1): 44-52.
|
| Task type: |
library-catalog tasks |
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"The tasks ranged from a keyword
search for “global warming” to a more complicated
search for a specific compact disc by the artist Prince." (p. 46) |
|
|
|
Williamsa, S. C. & Fostera, A. K. (2011). Promise Fulfilled? An EBSCO Discovery Service Usability Study. Journal of Web Librarianship, 5(3): 179-198.
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Scenario 1: Click the Search It logo to begin a new search
You are writing a short research paper about hybrid cars. Your professor requires you to have one book and one peer-reviewed journal article for your paper. Identify one of each and e-mail the citations to yourself.
Scenario 2: Click the Search It logo to begin a new search
You have to give a presentation on bullying in high school, and your sources must be published since 2005. Your presentation is tomorrow, so find an article that you can read online. Open the full text of the article on the screen.
Scenario 3: Click the Search It logo to begin a new search
You need to read the “I Sing the Body Electric” poem by Walt Whitman, published in Leaves of Grass, for your English class. Is there a copy available in Milner Library?
Scenario 4: Click the Search It logo to begin a new search
You are a member of a group working on a presentation about the effect social networking (e.g., Facebook, MySpace) has had on relationships of teenagers. Identify an appropriate article from a peer-reviewed journal and decide how to share it with your group members.
Scenario 5: Click the Search It logo to begin a new search
You are researching a project about the economic factors that affect businesses in Indonesia. Your professor said that useful information could be found in the ABI/Inform database. Perform a search on this topic and identify a relevant citation from ABI/Inform. Retrieve the full record from ABI/Inform.
|
|
|
|
Taylor, N. J., Dennis, A. R. & Cummings, J. W. (2013). Situation normality and the shape of search: The effects of time delays and information presentation on search behavior. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(5): 909-928.
|
| Task type: |
consumer task/business task |
| Task type definition: |
The task resembled both a consumer task involving relatively infrequent, high-value decisions (e.g., major purchases or vacation planning) as well as a business task where a number of websites/online databases need to be consulted in order to select the best alternative from a group of similar choices. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Participants were asked to select the best digital camera from a set of 20 cameras for use by a department that had a defined set of selection criteria." (p. 915) |
|
|
|
Shah, C. (2013). Effects of awareness on coordination in collaborative information seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(6): 1122-1143.
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A leading newspaper has hired your team to create a comprehensive report on the causes and consequences of the current economic recession in the United States. As a part of your contract, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find.
To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report. You may also want to save the relevant websites as bookmarks, but remember your main objective here is to collect as many relevant snippets as possible.
Your report on this topic should address the following issues: reasons behind this recession; effects on some major areas, such as health-care, home ownership, and financial sector (stock market); unemployment statistics over a period of time; proposal, execution, and effects of the economy stimulation plan; and people's opinions and reactions on economy's downfall. |
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The College Network News Channel wants to do a documentary on the effects of social networking services and software. Your team is responsible for collecting various relevant information (including statistics) from the web. As a part of your assignment, you are required to collect all the relevant information from any available online sources that you can find.
To prepare this report, search and visit any website that you want and look for specific aspects as given in the guideline below. As you find useful information, highlight and save relevant snippets. Later, you can use these snippets to compile your report. You may also want to save the relevant websites as bookmarks, but remember your main objective here is to collect as many relevant snippets as possible.
Your report on this topic should address the following issues: emergence and spread of social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us; statistics about popularity of such sites (How many users? How much time they spend? How much content?); impacts on students and professionals; commerce around these sites (How do they make money? How do users use them to make money?); and examples of usage of such services in various domains, such as health-care and politics. |
|
|
|
O'Brien, H. L. & Lebow, M. (2013) Mixed-methods approach to measuring user experience in online news interactions. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(8): 1543-1556.
|
| Task type: |
News reading task |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You will be attending a social gathering this evening. It is a birthday party for a friend being held at a local restaurant. You do not know many of the guests in attendance. You thought it might facilitate meeting new people and taking part in conversations if you were up-to-date on some recent news. You decide to browse the CBC news website to see if there are any interesting items.
You only have about 20 minutes before you have to start getting ready for the party. You decide that looking at one article might not give enough variety of information since you do not know the interests and backgrounds of the other guests. In the end, you determine that three articles would give you enough things to bring up in conversation. |
|
|
|
White, R., Jose, J.M., & Ruthven, I. (2001). Query-biased web page summarisation: A task-oriented evaluation. Proceedings of the 24th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 412-413.
|
| Task type: |
Search for a fact |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Summary: "fi nding a named person's current e-mail address" (p.413) |
|
| Task type: |
Search for a number of items |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Summary: "fi nding fi ve hotels in Paris, France that off er an online booking service" (p.413) |
|
| Task type: |
Decision search |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Summary: "fi nding information about the 'best' impressionist art museum in Rome, Italy" (p.413) |
|
| Task type: |
Background search |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Summary: " finding information about dust allergies in the workplace" (p.413) |
|
|
|
Wacholder, N., Kelly, D., Kantor, P., Rittman, R., Sun, Y., Bai, B., Small, S., Yamrom, B., & Strzalkowski, T. (2008). A model for quantitative evaluation of an end-to-end question-answering system. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 58(8), 1082-1099.
|
| Task type: |
Scenarios |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The Department of Homeland Security has requested a complete report on the chemical weapon, sarin. This report is due in 5 hours. In your report, include a discussion of its potency and potential impact on a community, what countries and organizations have been involved in producing it, where these locations are, the production method and how it has developed, who possesses it now, who distributed it (if through trade, what was traded for it?), potential means of use, how it this be integrated into warheads, any known defenses against it, and who is at the greatest risk. Provide any other information that you see relevant. |
| 2 |
As an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, your profession entails knowledge of the al-Qaida terrorist group. Your division chief has ordered a detailed report on the al-Qaida Terrorist Group, due in three weeks. Provide as much information as possible on this militant organization. Eventually, this report should present information regarding the most essential concerns, including who are the key figures involved with al-Qaida along with other organizations, countries, and members that are affiliated, any trades that al-Qaida has made with organizations or countries, what facilities they possess, where they receive their financial support, what capabilities they have (chemical and biological weapons program, other weapons, etc.) and how have they acquired them, what is their possible future activity, how their training program operates, who their new members are. Also, include any other relevant information to your report as you see fit. |
| 3 |
You have been given 30 days to develop a comprehensive report on the South African chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare program, for your division chief who is to present it to the Secretary of Defense. Your report should include several key elements of the South African WMD Program, including what people, organizations, and countries are involved, what chemicals have been purchased and/or used, where the chemicals have been purchased from and from whom, how their WMD program was financed, where these development locations are, any proposed activity (use, distribution, etc.), any money transactions that have been made between these suspects and other organizations, and any other contacts or travels that have been made by any of the primary figures involved. Supply any further information that can support your documentation. |
| 4 |
The Department of Defense has demanded a report on how Russia has influenced the nuclear arms program in Iraq. The department needs the summary by close of business today. List the extent of the nuclear program in each country including funding, capabilities, quantity, etc. Your report should also include key figures in both the Russia and Iraq nuclear programs, any travels that these key figures have made to other countries in regards to a nuclear program, any weapons that have been used in the past by either country, any purchases or trades that have been made relevant to weapons of mass destruction (possibly oil trade, etc.), any ingredients and chemicals that have been used, any potential weapons that could be under development, other countries that are involved or have close ties to Russia or Iraq, possible locations of development sites, and possible companies or organizations that these countries work with for their nuclear arms program. Add any other information relating to the Russian and Iraqi Nuclear Arms Programs. |
| 5 |
The Department of Defense has demanded a report concerning the North Korean Nuclear Arms Program. This report is needed within two days and should include any advances that have been made in their program, as well as their current stance on South Korea and the United States. Also include sources of weapons materials and technical assistance received. It should also contain information on any travels that have been made by North Korean government officials (where they travel to, who they visited, etc.), new relationships that North Korea has established, who these countries or organizations are, what capabilities they possess, and any other information that may apply. |
|
|
|
Villa, R., Gildea, N., & Jose, J.M. (2008). FacetBrowser: A user interface for complex search tasks. Proceedings of the 16th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, 489-498.
|
| Task type: |
Situated work tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"A situated work task has two parts: a work task situation, and an indicative request. The work task situation describes a task scenario for the user, including the larger work context in which the search is taking place. The indicative request defines example requests for the task." (p.494) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Imagine you are a student working towards a media studies degree at the Open University, during the last few months of 2005. As part of your 2rd year “politics and the media” course, you have to produce a video program which presents a review of international politics at the end of 2005, as reported on the television news. You must now find material for this video presentation, to use in illustrating the important people, events, meetings, and situations which have occurred.
Your task is to find, using the system, shots which reflect the important political events and people during the end of 2005. Material to find may include shots of politicians, speeches, interviews, panel discussions and in particular shots linking the different people and events together. For instance, searches may include famous leaders such as George Bush or Tony Blair, and include thematic situations in which they are involved together (for example, the in war in Iraq is of common relevance to both of the above leaders).
Other international organisations such as the UN and EU, and shots illustrating events involving these organisations are also of significance to your video report. Choose as many shots from as many different videos as possible. If any individual video story is split across multiple shots, please mark all shots you feel are necessary in the video. Don’t worry about the order of your marked shots – you may assume that a separate video editing package is available which would allow you to edit your found shots into a summary, a task which will not be carried out in this experiment. |
| 2 |
You work as a researcher for a television company, and as part of your remit, you work on a bi-monthly news program, which summarises and reviews major news stories. The latest episode of the program is to summarise the trial of Saddam Hussein, occurring during the final months of 2005. From the given database containing news from the final months of 2005, discover shots of the main news events which describe the story of the trial. This should, as far as possible, include all relevant material, including discussions and interviews about the trial reflecting contemporary views from all sides. For instance, aspects include the victims of his regime, his capture, allegations in court (e.g. torture) and shots of the other court players such as the judge. Choose as many shots from as many different videos as possible. If any individual video story is split across multiple shots, please mark all shots you feel are necessary in the video. Don’t worry about the order of your marked shots – you may assume that a separate video editing package is available which would allow you to edit your found shots into a summary, a task which will not be carried out in this experiment. |
|
|
|
Tombros, A., Ruthven, I., & Jose, J.M. (2003). Searchers' criteria for assessing Web pages. Proceedings of the 26th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 385-386.
|
| Task type: |
Background search |
| Task type definition: |
"searchers were asked to find as much general background information on the demographics of the Internet as possible" (p.385) |
| Task type: |
Decision task |
| Task type definition: |
"subjects were asked to decide on the best hi-fi speakers available in their own price range" (p.385) |
| Task type: |
Many items search |
| Task type definition: |
"the subjects [were asked] to compile a list of interesting things to do over a weekend stay in the city of Kyoto" (p.385) |
|
|
Skov, M. (2009). The Reinvented Museum: Exploring Information Seeking Behaviour in a Digital Museum Context. PhD thesis, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark. pure.iva.dk/ws/files/30768221/MetteSkovThesis.pdf
|
| Task type: |
Well-defined topical information need |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You went to the flea market last weekend and by coincidence you found an old powder horn. You bought the powder horn and was told, that it had been used in connection with hunting. However, one of your friends is certain it was used in the military. Now you are looking for different types of powder horns to try to decide on its use. (A photograph of the ‘purchased’ powder horn was shown to the use study participant). |
|
| Task type: |
Data element search |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
In your free time you do some research on the local history of your home town, Odense. In connection with the town’s anniversary you plan to publish a small article on the town’s industrial history. Therefore you are now doing some research on gun makers from your home town. You are interested in finding names of gun makers from Odense and maybe information on the weapons they produced. |
|
| Task type: |
Ill-defined topical information need |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are interested in Danish defence history relating to the Second World War. You visited the Military Museum’s exhibitions but you did not find as much information about the Second World War as you had expected. Therefore you are looking for additional information on their web site. You are interested in both objects, photographs, background information etc. |
|
| Task type: |
Combined known item and data element search |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You visited The Military Museum a couple of weeks ago because you are interested in American western history. You saw the exhibition on hand weapons, and you are pretty sure you found a Colt Navy revolver. Now you are interested in finding more information on this type of weapon and whether the Museum has more Colt revolvers. |
|
|
|
Skov, M., & Ingwersen, P. (2008). Exploring information seeking behaviour in a digital museum context. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Information Interaction in Context (IIiX), 110-115.
|
| Task type: |
Ill-defined topic |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You went to the flea market last weekend and by coincidence you found an old powder horn. You bought the powder horn and was told, that it had been used in connection with hunting. However, one of your friends is certain it was used in the military. Now you are looking for different types of powder horns to try to decide on its use. (A photograph of the “purchased” powder horn is shown to
the test person). |
|
| Task type: |
Data element |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Task type: |
Ill-defined topic (broad and semantically open) |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Task type: |
Known item + data element |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
|
|
Singer, G., Norbisrath, U., & Lewandowski, D. (2012). Ordinary search engine users assessing difficulty, effort, and outcome for simple and complex search tasks. Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context (IIiX) Symposium, 110-119.
|
| Task type: |
Simple tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Simple tasks are characterized by asking the users to find simple facts. The needed information is contained in one document (web site) and can retrieved with one single query." (p.112) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
When was the composer of the piece "The Magic Flute" born? |
| 2 |
How hot can it be on average in July in Aachen/Germany? |
| 3 |
How many opera pieces did Verdi compose? |
| 4 |
When and by whom was penicillin discovered? |
| 5 |
How many Euros do you get if you exchange 10.000 units of the currency of Lithuania? |
| 6 |
Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) was a well-known journalist and publisher from the U.S. The Pulitzer Prize carries on his name. In which European country was Pulitzer born? |
|
| Task type: |
Complex tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Complex tasks... are formulated in a way that the users have enough context to comprehend the task situation but the tasks are still characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. There is no single correct answer retrievable and the required information is spread over various documents (web sites). Fulfilling the task typically requires issuing multiple queries, aggregating information from various sources and synthesizing the information into a single
solution document." (p.112) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How high is the state debt of Italy in comparison to their gross domestic product (GDP) in June 2011 in %? |
| 2 |
What are the most important ve points to consider if you want to plan a budget wedding? |
| 3 |
You were off ered the job to run a local Goethe Institute (responsible for German language and cultural education) abroad. The chance is high that you will be sent to Astana (Kazakhstan). Please collect facts and information (about half a page) about the political situation in Kazakhstan and the living quality. |
| 4 |
What is the name of the creature on the following picture and who is the author? Hint: this Austrian writer is also well known in Germany. (Illustration omitted for copyright reasons) |
| 5 |
Are there di fferences regarding the distribution of religious affiliations between Austria, Germany, and Switzerland? Which ones? |
| 6 |
There are fi ve countries whose names are also carried by chemical elements. France has two (31. Ga - Gallium and 87. Fr - Francium), Germany has one
(32. Ge - Germanium), Russia has one (44. Ru - Ruthenium) and Poland has one (84. Po - Polonium). Please name the fifth country. |
|
|
|
Otterbacher, J., Radev, D., & Kareem, O. (2008). Hierarchical summarization for delivering information to mobile devices. Information Processing & Management, 44(2), 931-947.
|
| Task type: |
Multiple choice questions |
| Task type definition: |
"Designed to measure a user’s reading comprehension of a set of articles that have been summarized, and in which users are asked to find the answers to key factual questions surrounding the articles" (p.939) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Who is Malaysian prime minister Mahathir's closest economic adviser? |
| 2 |
How much wheat does Egypt import? |
| 3 |
What is Kwinana? |
| 4 |
Which stock index was down by 2.24 percent? |
| 5 |
What was Doan Viet Hoat's occupation in 1976? |
| 6 |
Who is Yashwant Sinha? |
| 7 |
Where is Port Moresby? |
| 8 |
Where is Irian Jaya? |
| 9 |
What percentage of the vote in the Columbian presidential elections did the Liberal party win? |
| 10 |
What is the name of a Japanese Car Producers' Organization? |
|
|
|
Borlund, P., & Ingwersen, P. (1999). The application of work tasks in connection with the evaluation of interactive information retrieval systems: Empirical results. Mira '99: Evaluating Interactive Information Retrieval (Glasgow, UK, April 14-16, 1999), 1-18. www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_mi99_paper1.pdf.
|
| Task type: |
Simulated work task situation plus indicative request |
| Task type definition: |
"The simulated work task situation helps to describe to the test person: the source of the information need; the environment of the situation; the problem which has to be solved; and serves to make the test person understand the objective of the search... The indicative request is a suggestion to the test person about what to search for." (p.2) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Simulated work task situation: After your graduation you will be looking for a job in industry. You want information to help you focus your future job seeking. You know it pays to know the market. You would like to find some information about employment patterns in industry and what kind of qualifications employers will be looking for from future employees.
Indicative request: Find for instance something about future employment trends in industry, i.e. areas of growth and decline. |
| 2 |
Simulated work task situation: You have got a new student job with a local branch of one of the wildlife protection organisations. Your responsibility is to maintain and update the web pages of the organisation. You have been informed that the organisation’s next big campaign will be on how to prevent the decline of wildlife species, focusing on the situation in Europe. As a new member of staff you feel you need some basic background information so you have decided to investigate the European situation with particular reference to problems caused by environmental and climate changes.
Indicative request: Find for instance something about the steps taken to save species of wildlife. |
| 3 |
Simulated work task situation: Some friends of yours are about to visit you and as a surprise you are planning a trip for all of you to the Isle of Arran. You have heard rumours that some of the ferries to Arran are less safe than others. In addition to this you have recently seen the movie Titanic. You would therefore like to retrieve information about the causes of safety problems on ferries as well as some information about how to prevent accidents.
Indicative request: Find for instance something about ferry sinking. |
| 4 |
Simulated work task situation: There has been a burglary in your flat. Among the things stolen was an old and unique piece of jewellery with a high value of affect. You called the police, who were not very hopeful of getting the jewellery back. They said that there had been several such burglaries in the areas within the previous few months. You’re interested in finding out about similar cases and more specifically the details and the consequences of the crimes.
Indicative request: Find for instance something about the buying or selling of stolen objects. |
| 5 |
Simulated work task situation: The other night you were at a party where the Hubble Telescope was discussed as one of the other guests knew quite a lot about this subject. Now you want to improve your own knowledge of this topic and more specifically you want to know about the Telescope’s technical drawbacks and scientific achievements.
Indicative request: Find for instance something about the launch of the Hubble Telescope in 1991. |
|
| Task type: |
Simulated work task situation only |
| Task type definition: |
"The simulated work task situation helps to describe to the test person: the source of the information need; the environment of the situation; the problem which has to be solved; and serves to make the test person understand the objective of the search... The exclusion of the indicative request (and definition) makes the sim-2 version more semantically open. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Simulated work task situation: After your graduation you will be looking for a job in industry. You want information to help you focus your future job seeking. You know it pays to know the market. You would like to find some information about employment patterns in industry and what kind of qualifications employers will be looking for from future employees. |
| 2 |
Simulated work task situation: You have got a new student job with a local branch of one of the wildlife protection organisations. Your responsibility is to maintain and update the web pages of the organisation. You have been informed that the organisation’s next big campaign will be on how to prevent the decline of wildlife species, focusing on the situation in Europe. As a new member of staff you feel you need some basic background information so you have decided to investigate the European situation with particular reference to problems caused by environmental and climate changes. |
| 3 |
Simulated work task situation: Some friends of yours are about to visit you and as a surprise you are planning a trip for all of you to the Isle of Arran. You have heard rumours that some of the ferries to Arran are less safe than others. In addition to this you have recently seen the movie Titanic. You would therefore like to retrieve information about the causes of safety problems on ferries as well as some information about how to prevent accidents. |
| 4 |
Simulated work task situation: There has been a burglary in your flat. Among the things stolen was an old and unique piece of jewellery with a high value of affect. You called the police, who were not very hopeful of getting the jewellery back. They said that there had been several such burglaries in the areas within the previous few months. You’re interested in finding out about similar cases and more specifically the details and the consequences of the crimes. |
| 5 |
Simulated work task situation: The other night you were at a party where the Hubble Telescope was discussed as one of the other guests knew quite a lot about this subject. Now you want to improve your own knowledge of this topic and more specifically you want to know about the Telescope’s technical drawbacks and scientific achievements. |
|
|
|
Marchionini, G., & Liebscher, P. (1991). Performance in electronic encyclopedias: Implications for adaptive systems. Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science, 39-48.
|
| Task type: |
Fact retrieval questions |
| Task type definition: |
"Some asked participants to retrieve a single fact from the database, e.g., in what year was penicillin first synthesized. Others asked them to retrieve multiple facts, e.g., list the names of planetary moons that appear in the database... The number of facets in the questions and the number of possible answers in the text were parallel for each of the four sets of four questions." (p.41) |
|
|
Wu, M., Fuller, M., & Wilkinson, R. (2001). Searcher performance in question answering. Proceedings of the 24th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 375-381.
|
| Task type: |
Type I questions |
| Task type definition: |
"The Type 1 questions are of the form <>... For the Type 1 questions, a complete answer consists of n answer components, plus a list of supporting documents." (p.378) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are the names of three US national parks where one can see redwoods? |
| 2 |
Identify a site with Roman ruins in present day France. |
| 3 |
Name four films in which Orson Welles appeared. |
| 4 |
Name three countries that imported Cuban sugar during the period of time covered by the document collection. |
| 5 |
Name four US national parks where you can find redwoods. |
| 6 |
Name three films in which Orson Welles appeared. |
| 7 |
Name three therapies for controlling Parkinson’s disease. |
| 8 |
Name three France cities where you can find Roman ruins. |
|
| Task type: |
Type 2 questions |
| Task type definition: |
"The Type 2 questions are of the form <>... For the Type 2 questions, two facts are usually needed to make the comparison, plus supporting documents." (p.378) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which children’s TV program was on the air longer: the original Micky Mouse Club or the original Howdy Doody Show? |
| 2 |
Which painting did Edvard Munch complete first: “Vampire” or “Puberty”? |
| 3 |
Which was the last dynasty in China: Qing or Ming? |
| 4 |
Is Denmark larger or smaller in population than Norway? |
| 5 |
Which is common official language of Belgium and Swiss: English or French? |
| 6 |
Which is the last dynasty of China: Qing or Ming? |
| 7 |
Who is the first Prime Minister of Australia: Deakin or Barton? |
| 8 |
Which planet is bigger: Jupiter or Mars? |
|
|
|
Williams, M.E., Kinnucan, M., Smith, L.C., Lannom, L., & Cho, D. (1986). Comparative analysis of online retrieval interfaces. Proceedings of the 49th ASIS Annual Meeting, 365-370.
|
| Task type: |
Simple popular interest medical queries |
| Task type definition: |
"The simplest queries contained a single concept. An example of a single-concept query is, 'You recently heard a lecture about bibliotherapy, the use of reading as a therapeutic technique. You found the lecture interesting and would like to find out what the medical literature has to say about this topic.'" (p.366) |
|
|
Wang, X., & Liebscher, P. (1988). Information seeking in hypertext: Effects of physical format and search strategy. Proceedings of the 51st ASIS Annual Meeting, 200-204.
|
| Task type: |
Fact retrieval questions |
| Task type definition: |
"All questions required retrieval of specific facts from one or more articles in the database." (p.201) |
|
|
Turpin, A.H., & Hersh, W. (2001). Why batch and user evaluations do not give the same results. Proceedings of the 24th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 225-231.
|
| Task type: |
Instance recall tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Instance recall was defined as the number of instances of a topic retrieved" (p.226) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What tropical storms hurricanes and typhoons have caused property damage and or loss of life? |
| 2 |
What countries import Cuban sugar? |
| 3 |
What countries other than the US and China have or have had a declining birth rate? |
| 4 |
What are the latest developments in robotic technology and it use? |
| 5 |
What countries have experienced an increase in tourism? |
| 6 |
In what countries have tourists been subject to acts of violence causing bodily harm or death? |
|
| Task type: |
Question-answering tasks, type 1 |
| Task type definition: |
These tasks "required users to find a small number of answers for a topic" (p.227) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are the names of three US national parks where one can find redwoods? |
| 2 |
Identify a site of Roman ruins in present day France? |
| 3 |
Name four films in which Orson Welles actually appeared. |
| 4 |
Name 3 countries that imported Cuban sugar during the period of time covered by the collection. |
|
| Task type: |
Question-answering tasks, type 2 |
| Task type definition: |
These tasks "asked users to select the correct answer from two given" (p.227) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which children's TV program was on the air longer, the original Mickey Mouse Club or the original Howdy Doody Show? |
| 2 |
Which painting did Edvard Munch complete first, "Vampire" or "Puberty"? |
| 3 |
Which was the last dynasty of China: Qing or Ming? |
| 4 |
Is Denmark larger or smaller in population than Norway? |
|
|
|
Shapira, B., Taieb-Maimon, M., & Nemeth, Y. (2005). Subjective and objective evaluation of interactive and automatic query expansion. Online Information Review, 29(4), 374-390.
|
| Task type: |
Searching tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are not sure about the safety of genetically engineered foods and would like to find more information and research on this topic. Name four potential types of safety problems that have been raised. |
| 2 |
You are interested in learning more about what measures the US government has taken since 2001 to prevent Mad-Cow Disease. Identify three such measures. |
| 3 |
Name/find three research programs/projects that investigate the treatment/causes of dwarfism. |
| 4 |
How much does the federal government spend on mental health, and to what entities does the funding go? |
| 5 |
You are concerned with privacy issues related to electronic information and would like to know what laws have been passed by the US Congress regarding these issues. Identify three such laws. |
| 6 |
What criteria does the Immigration and Naturalization Service use to approve visa applications from foreign nationals (list three)? |
|
|
|
Risden, K., Czerwinski, M.P., Munzner, T., & Cook, D.B. (2000). An initial examination of ease of use for 2D and 3D information visualizations of web content. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 53(5), 695-714.
|
| Task type: |
Existing category, one parent |
| Task type definition: |
"The subject was asked to find an existing category" and "the target category and requested response involved a single parent/path" (p.706) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You want to add content about Pope John Paul to an existing category by the same name. Find the Pope John Paul category. |
|
| Task type: |
Existing category, multiple parents |
| Task type definition: |
"The subject was asked to find an existing category" and "the target category and requested response involved... multiple parents/paths" (p.706) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You want to add "buying photographic art supplies" to the existing Photography
category. Find the category. Then figure out what other paths people can take to get to this content. |
|
| Task type: |
New category, one parent |
| Task type definition: |
"The subject was asked to... add a new category to the directory scheme" and "the target category and requested response involved a single parent/path" (p.706) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Create a new category for content about "Elementary Schools" and find a logical place to put it. Determine if there are other paths people could take to the content. Take those paths into account if necessary when coming up with the new category label. |
|
| Task type: |
New category, multiple parents |
| Task type definition: |
"The subject was asked to... add a new category to the directory scheme" and "the target category and requested response involved... multiple parents/paths" (p.706) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Create a new category for "Software tools for creating effective e-commerce Web sites". Find a logical place for this category. Determine at least one other path that you would create to this category. Take this into account if necessary when creating your new category. |
|
|
|
Pirolli, P., Card, S.K., & van der Wege, M.M. (2003). The effects of information scent on visual search in the Hyperbolic Tree Browser. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 10(1), 20-53.
|
| Task type: |
Simple retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"Simple retrieval tasks required finding a leaf node in the tree" of the data structure. (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find Lake Victoria |
| 2 |
Find the Ebola virus |
| 3 |
Find a hammer |
| 4 |
Find the month of July |
|
| Task type: |
Complex retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"Complex retrieval tasks also involved finding leaf nodes, but involved either some ambiguity and lack of familiarity or a degree of depth in the hierarchy." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find a cross-cut saw |
| 2 |
Find a tomato |
| 3 |
Find the discipline of climatology |
| 4 |
Find a lobster |
|
| Task type: |
Local comparison |
| Task type definition: |
"Local comparison tasks involved comparison of several nodes that were reasonably close together in the tree structures." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which religion has the most holidays in this list? |
| 2 |
Are there more fruits with pits or with cores? |
| 3 |
How many North American pro soccer teams are named after animals? |
| 4 |
Which digit appears in no BMW number? |
|
| Task type: |
Global comparison |
| Task type definition: |
"Global comparison tasks required comparison of several nodes in disparate parts of the tree." (p.30) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which Greek deity has the same name as a space mission? |
| 2 |
Find a big cat and an AL baseball team with the same name |
| 3 |
What characteristic can describe both smell and taste? |
| 4 |
How many Bonapartes ruled beyond the borders of France? |
|
|
|
Paek, T., Dumais, S., & Logan, R. (2004). WaveLens: A new view onto internet search results. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 727-734.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants were asked to find a web page that contained the answer to a question, from among a list of ten search results... questions were constructed with a unique answer that could be found in only one of the ten results" displayed (p.731) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which site relates that 17 million Americans have diabetes? |
|
|
|
Morehead, D.R., & Rouse, W.B. (1985). Online assessment of the value of information for searchers of a bibliographic data base. Information Processing & Management, 21(2), 83-101.
|
|
Ma, W. (2002). A database selection expert system based on reference librarian's database selection strategy: A usability and empirical evaluation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 53(7), 567-580.
|
| Task type: |
Search scenarios for the library user group |
| Task type definition: |
"Search scenarios for testing were selected from real reference questions collected at the Library’s central reference desk" (p.571) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Need articles on U.S. invasion of Normandy. |
| 2 |
What is being done to deal with aging nuclear power plants? (need to find full-text articles about this topic for an undergraduate presentation) |
| 3 |
Need to find articles and statistics on the current trend of women studying computer science. |
| 4 |
Need to find articles that compare different literary reviews and criticism on Wilde, Oscar's "The Important of Being Earnest." |
| 5 |
Water quality in developing countries (need to do in depth research as for a research project presentation). |
| 6 |
"Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead" (want articles which compared the play and the film). |
| 7 |
A comparative look at the role of the church in the Mexican American community (need to do in depth research for a graduate dissertation). |
| 8 |
Alcohol abuse in European countries (need to find full-text articles about this topic quickly for an undergraduate term paper assignment). |
| 9 |
Want articles which outline the current events on stock market investment for a short undergraduate presentation. |
| 10 |
Gun control in the United States (need to find full-text articles about this topic for an undergraduate term paper). |
|
| Task type: |
Search scenarios for library staff group |
| Task type definition: |
"Search scenarios for testing were selected from real reference questions collected at the Library’s central reference desk" (p.571) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Why do people buy a certain type of shoes? Do they think the shoes they decide upon represent something about their personality? (The user needed primary and scholarly information to write a market report about consumer behavior on buying footwear.) |
| 2 |
What is being done to deal with aging nuclear power plants? (The user needed general level information to write a 6 page term paper. Full-text was preferred.) |
| 3 |
A patron wanted articles which outline the current events on stock market investment. |
| 4 |
Who was Lady Baltimore? (A user was researching on Latin American culture and would like to find out why many restaurants are named after her name.) |
| 5 |
A user was looking for federal and non-federal grants and funding opportunities to support his research in the area of environmental science. |
| 6 |
A student needed to compare different literary reviews and criticism on Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" for his class assignment. |
| 7 |
A student was looking for scholarly information about water quality in developing countries for a term paper project. |
| 8 |
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." The patron wanted the articles which compared the play and the film. |
| 9 |
A student taking History 263 was looking for information on the topic: "A comparative look at the role of the church in the Mexican American community" for her 10 page term paper project. |
| 10 |
A user was looking for databases which include literary reviews or criticism of children's literature in the area of arts and humanities. |
| 11 |
A user was looking for most recent statistical information about Arab American population in the US. |
| 12 |
Current trends in women studying computer science. The patron needed most recent statistical figures and articles to write a report. |
|
|
|
Leroy, G., Lally, A.M., & Chen, H. (2003). The use of dynamic contexts to improve
casual internet searching. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 21(3), 229-253.
|
|
Koshman, S. (2005). Testing user interaction with a prototype visualization-based information retrieval system. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 56(8), 824-833.
|
| Task type: |
IR task |
| Task type definition: |
"The scenario for this investigation builds on selecting a popular Associated Press story, providing a brief synopsis of the story and asking participants to find related news articles. Participants were asked to conduct this IR task to find more information on the subject of the news story." (Table 2 note, p.828) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Scenario: Please find more news articles related to the news article summary provided to you. This scenario applies to all tasks, but the subject matter changes for each task group. Participants are provided with the keywords to use in the query.
Task 1 - Task objective: Can users find document items that relate to all keywords in their query?
Test set-up: How many newspaper articles contain all the keywords or POIs identified in the query?
Task description: Finding the star feature, invoking the star feature, counting the lines emanating from the document icon, examining the status bar for the headline. |
| 2 |
Scenario: Please find more news articles related to the news article summary provided to you. This scenario applies to all tasks, but the subject matter changes for each task group. Participants are provided with the keywords to use in the query.
Task 2 - Task objective: Can users execute a Boolean intersection and find the number of documents items related to two or more aspects of the query?
Test set-up: How many newspaper articles relate to the keywords ‘communist’ and ‘reform’?
Task description: Selecting 1 color option for 1 POI and another color option for another POI, counting the document icons influenced by the system collision color—red. |
|
|
|
Koshman, S. (2004). Comparing usability between a visualization and text-based system for information retrieval. Journal of Documentation, 60(5), 565-580.
|
| Task type: |
IR tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined further |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Create a subset of approx. 20 retrieved items |
| 2 |
Create a subset of approx. ten retrieved items |
| 3 |
Find documents related to all query terms |
| 4 |
Find documents relating to only two query terms and not any others |
| 5 |
Construct a query to retrieve documents |
|
|
|
Heo, M., & Hirtle, S.C. (2001). An empirical comparison of visualization tools to assist information retrieval on the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 52(8), 666-675.
|
| Task type: |
Tool-strong questions |
| Task type definition: |
Questions for which the visualization tool would be useful; includes both questions requiring users' understandability of the Web space and questions requiring comparisons on the Web pages |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Name any two faculty members who have publications accessible online. |
| 2 |
How many abstracts are available from the CIRCLE’s seminar page in the list of upcoming events? |
| 3 |
Which faculty node has the most Web pages linked from it? |
| 4 |
How many faculty members in the Intelligent Systems Program (ISP) have Web pages? |
| 5 |
Are there more ISP seminars or ISP colloquiums listed? |
| 6 |
For how many terms are online course schedules provided? |
| 7 |
Which link in the ISP homepage contains information about special student status? |
| 8 |
How many research associates in the Intelligent Systems Program have Web pages? |
|
| Task type: |
Tool-neutral questions |
| Task type definition: |
Questions for which the visualization tool might not have much impact |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How often is the Introduction to Clinical Multimedia and the Internet (ISSP 2040) class offered? |
| 2 |
How many journal articles did Dr. Kurt VanLehn publish in 1998? |
| 3 |
When was the last time that the Intelligent Systems Research Seminar (ISSP 2050) class was offered? |
| 4 |
Name the ISSP 2040 textbook title authored by Grosky, Jain, and Mehrotra? |
| 5 |
How many classes did Dr. Druzdzel teach in Spring 1999? |
| 6 |
What are the office hours of Dr. Pollack for the Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence (ISSP 3565) class? |
| 7 |
What is the fax number of Dr. Druzdzel? |
| 8 |
How many people acquired their Ph.D. degrees under Dr. Daley’s mentorship? |
| 9 |
Who is the teaching assistant in the Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics (ISSP 2060) class in Spring 1999 (99-2)? |
| 10 |
Who do you have to contact for information about Medical Informatics track admission? |
| 11 |
What is the ISSP course number of the Introduction to Medical Informatics class? |
| 12 |
What is the phone number of Dr. VanLehn’s secretary? |
| 13 |
Which ISSP course is the prerequisite for the Machine Learning and Communication class (ISSP 2170)? |
| 14 |
What is the ISP Department code for the GRE? |
| 15 |
Name one of Dr. VanLehn’s current projects. |
| 16 |
Who is the director of the Intelligent Systems Program? |
| 17 |
Name one of the prerequisites of the Human Information Processing (ISSP 2220) class? |
| 18 |
Name one of the research interests of Dr. Lowe. |
| 19 |
In addition to 901 CL, where else does research associate Ron Rymon have an office? |
| 20 |
When is the deadline for the Mellon Fellowship application? (Specify the date) |
| 21 |
Name any two academic departments with which Dr. Moore is associated. |
| 22 |
How many core classes are required for MS and Ph.D. degrees? |
| 23 |
For the special student status application, which office do people have to contact? |
| 24 |
Who teaches the Machine Learning and Communication (ISSP 2170) class in the Spring 1999 (99-2)? |
|
|
|
Gauch, S., & Smith, J.B. (1991). Search improvement via automatic query reformulation. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 9(3), 249-280.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
Not specified |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are some sources of error in floating point arithmetic? (p.270) |
| 2 |
How is computer architecture distinguished from the other computer design domains? (p.270) |
| 3 |
What are some upward pressures on the level of a machine language? (p.270) |
| 4 |
Fixed length multiplication produces a double length result. How have different machines handled this? (p.270) |
| 5 |
How are interrupts handled? Do not consider techniques to disable them. (p.270) |
| 6 |
1/0 devices have moving parts. What is the effect of this motion on the architecture of computers? (p.270) |
| 7 |
What are some design principles that lead to clean architectures? Do not consider the economic advantages of a quality design. (p.270) |
| 8 |
What techniques have been used to reduce bit traffic? (p.270) |
| 9 |
How are control structures implemented? (p.270) |
| 10 |
What role does buffering play in 1/0 transfers? (p.270) |
| 11 |
Fragmentation of memory is one problem of using a segmentation scheme. How is paging used to fix this? (p.270) |
| 12 |
Discuss the two fundamentally different ways to formally specify an architecture. (p.270) |
| 13 |
What are the effects of having two zeros, as in the sign magnitude representation of fixed point numbers? (p.271) |
| 14 |
What is done to save state upon a procedure call? (p.271) |
| 15 |
Besides 1/0, where is concurrency practiced in the implementation? (p.271) |
|
|
|
Egan, D.E., Lesk, M.E., Ketchum, R.D., Lochbaum, C.C., Remde, J.R., Littman, M., & Landauer, T.K. (1991). Hypertext for the electronic library? CORE sample results. Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Conference on Hypertext, 299-312.
|
| Task type: |
Browsing task |
| Task type definition: |
"meant to simulate browsing recent journals to “keep current” in
certain topics" (p.305) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"In the experiment, subjects browse an individual JACS, 1988 issue (approximately 100 articles) with a list of eight topics in hand. The topics serve as a controlled “interest profile” and were generated by the subject matter experts. Four of the eight topics were known to be dealt with substantively by one or more articles in a particular issue, and four were believed not to be dealt with substantively by any article. Subjects browse an issue and if they find an article that deals substantively with one of the topics on the list, they jot down the beginning page number of the article. When they have completed browsing an issue, subjects are given the second part of the task, which is designed to measure how much information they may have learned incidentally about other topics not included on the first list." (p.305) |
|
| Task type: |
Citation task |
| Task type definition: |
"meant to simulate a situation in which a researcher has a very specific question whose answer is contained in a known reference." (p.305) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Subjects look up the reference--either in the printed journals or one of the electronic systems--and read the target article to find the answer." (p.305) |
|
| Task type: |
Search task |
| Task type definition: |
"essentially the same as the Citation Task, except that the subject is given only the question and not the citation" (p.305) |
| Task type: |
Essay task |
| Task type definition: |
"simulates having to write an introductory paragraph to a research paper that summarizes the recent work done on a topic" (p.306) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"For this task, subjects are given a topic that is dealt with by several articles in JACS, 1988. They have to find the sources and write an essay summarizing the information and citing the references they found." (p.306) |
|
| Task type: |
Analogous transformations |
| Task type definition: |
"When working on such a problem, the chemist will search for a transformation that takes a known substance C into another known substance D, where C is related to A, and D is related to B." (p.306) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"The problem statement consists of a pictorial presentation of a proposed transformation, and chemists search for known chemical reactions involving structures that appear similar to those proposed." (p.306) |
|
|
|
Ding, R., & Ma, F. (2013). Assessment of university student web searching competency by a task-based online test: A case study at Wuhan University, China. The Electronic Library, 31(3), 359-375.
|
| Task type: |
Simple task |
| Task type definition: |
Low difficulty; A factual task with simple well-defined information needs: using search engines (e.g., Baidu and Google) to get hypertext information shown in Chinese language by preliminary search strategies (e.g., inputting short keywords). This type of task has easy information browse and evaluation steps, with two to four total search paths. (p.363) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task situation: You are writing an introduction about the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
Indicative request: NSF was created in which year?
A. 1949
B. 1950
C. 1954
D. 1961
(p.364) |
|
| Task type: |
Basic task |
| Task type definition: |
Medium difficulty; A factual task or an intellectual task with well-defined
information needs: (1) using academic databases to search relevant papers by basic search strategies, as in searching titles and subjects; or (2) using a specific web site or search engines to search images, videos, or audio information by using basic search strategies. This type of task has
comparatively complex information scan and evaluation steps, with five to eight total search paths. (p.363) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task situation: One day on the road, you took pictures of girls from an ethnic group. Indicative request: Given the photos below [sample in article], you are curious about which ethnic group the girls belong to. Please write down the name of that ethnic group. (p.364) |
|
| Task type: |
Difficult task |
| Task type definition: |
High difficulty; A factual task or an intellectual task with ill-defined information needs: (1) searching sophisticated foreign academic databases to create academic products or make solutions via advanced search strategies, such as using operators; or (2) using virtualization tools (like Google Maps) to solve complex daily- life problems, requiring multifaceted information browse and evaluation steps, with more than eight total search path. (p.363) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task situation: Information searching behavior can be understood as information seeking behavior and information retrieval behavior.
Indicative request: Your teacher asked you to find relevant English papers on the topic of "the relations or influence between information task and information searching behavior". Please use the Science Direct database (http://www.sciencedirect.com/) to make a paper list containing three of the most important and relevant English papers. (p.365) |
| 2 |
Task situation: The US city Las Vegas is the world's most famous gambling entertainment center. On the Las Vegas Strip ("the Strip" or "Las Vegas Boulevard"), there are many luxurious hotels. These hotels are important tourist attractions. for example, the Bellagio has splendid musical foundation and Caesars Palace has a beautiful man-made sky dome.
Indicative request: Your company is organizing a tour to Las Vegas, and you re assigned to reserve a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The company staff hold three different opinions on target tourist attractions that involve three different hotels. One group wants to watch the US big Broadway Show, the second group wishes to take a boat on the Venice River, and others would like to enjoy the Volcano Show. First, please write down their names. Since the tourist schedule is tight, you need to reserve only one hotel from these three in order to guarantee that the total travelling distance of the three group's staff to their target attractions is shortest. (p.365) |
|
|
|
Dennis, S., Bruza, P., & McArthur, R. (2002). Web searching: A process-oriented experimental study of three interactive search paradigms. Journal of the American society for Information Science & Technology, 53(2), 120-133.
|
| Task type: |
Internet queries |
| Task type definition: |
"Generated to be a broad brushstroke of interesting Internet queries" (p.124) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find pages listing jokes referring to Monica Lewinsky. |
| 2 |
You are planning to move to Florida. Find pages listing jobs in the Florida area. |
| 3 |
Find pages containing women’s wave surfing competition results over the last 2 years. |
| 4 |
Find pages about dyslexia. |
| 5 |
Find pages that discuss clothing sweatshops. |
| 6 |
Find pages that describe current or planned explorations or scientific investigations of Antarctica. |
| 7 |
You own a personal computer that runs Windows ’95. Find pages describing software that will test if it is Y2K compliant. |
| 8 |
Find pages from which you can buy a pair of running shoes (online or at an address provided by the page). |
| 9 |
Find pages that inform you which drugs are used to treat depression. |
| 10 |
Find pages that discuss the disposal of long-lived radioactive wastes. |
| 11 |
Find pages that discuss in vitro fertilization. |
| 12 |
Are there any reliable or consistent predictors of mutual fund performance? |
| 13 |
Find recipes for different varieties of carrot cake. |
| 14 |
Find prices of Toshiba notebook computers. |
| 15 |
You want to go skiing in Europe. Find pages describing a package holiday. |
| 16 |
Find pages that discuss the concerns of the United States government regarding the export of encryption technology. |
| 17 |
What makes Deep Blue capable of beating a human chess player? |
| 18 |
Find pages that provide information regarding traveling in India. |
|
| Task type: |
Hard queries |
| Task type definition: |
"Queries taken from the TREC-8 collection (hard queries)" (p.127) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Identify instances of attacks on humans by Africanized (killer) bees. Relevant documents must cite a specific instance of a human attacked by killer bees. Documents that note migration patterns or report attacks on other animals are not relevant unless they also cite an attack on a human. |
| 2 |
Find accounts of selfless, heroic acts by individuals or small groups for the benefit of others or a cause. Relevant documents will contain a description of specific acts. General statements concerning heroic acts are not relevant. |
| 3 |
What counterfeiting of money is being done in modern times? Relevant documents must cite actual instances of counterfeiting. Anticounterfeiting measures by themselves are not relevant. |
| 4 |
Find information on shipwreck salvaging: the recovery or attempted recovery of treasure from sunken ships. A relevant document will provide information on the actual location and recovery of treasure; on the technology that makes possible the discovery, location, and investigation of wreckages that contain or are suspected of containing treasure; or on the disposition of the recovered treasure. |
| 5 |
In what ways have quilts been used to generate income? Documents mentioning quilting books, quilting classes, quilted objects, and museum exhibits of quilts are all relevant. Documents that discuss AIDS quilts are irrelevant, unless there is specific mention that the quilts are being used for fundraising. |
| 6 |
Do any countries other than the United States and China have declining birth rates? To be relevant, a document will name a country other than the United States and China in which the birth rate fell from the previous year. The decline need not have occurred in more than 1 preceding year. |
| 7 |
Find ways of measuring creativity. Relevant items include definitions of creativity, descriptions of characteristics associated with creativity, and factors linked to creativity. |
| 8 |
What is the status of the Three Gorges project? A relevant document will provide the projected date of completion of the project, its estimated cost, or the estimated electrical output of the finished project. Discussions of the social, political, or ecological impact of the project are not relevant. |
| 9 |
What is the impact of poaching on the world’s various wildlife preserves? A relevant document must discuss poaching in wildlife preserves, not in the wild itself. Also deemed relevant is evidence of preventive measures being taken by local authorities. |
| 10 |
What are new methods of producing steel? Relevant documents will discuss the processes adapted by entrepreneurs who have organized so-called “minimills,” and are producing steel by methods that differ from the old furnace method of production. Documents that identify the new companies, the problems they have encountered, and/or their successes or failures in the national and international markets are also relevant. |
| 11 |
What legal actions have resulted from the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988? Documents describing any charges, claims, or fines presented to or imposed by any court or tribunal are relevant, but documents that discuss charges made in diplomatic jousting are not relevant. |
| 12 |
Find information on the use of dogs worldwide for law enforcement purposes. Relevant items include specific information on the use of dogs during an operation. Training of dogs and their handlers are also relevant. |
|
|
|
Dempsey, B.J., Vreeland, R.C., Sumner, R.G., Jr., & Yang, K. (2000). Design and empirical evaluation of search software for legal professionals on the WWW. Information Processing & Management, 36(2), 253-273.
|
| Task type: |
Search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A-1 Find Professor Ethan Katsh's article entitled "Cybertime, Cyberspace, and Cyberlaw" in the Journal of Online Law. (p.271) |
| 2 |
A-2 Find an opinion issued by any US Court of Appeal which mentions peyote. (p.271) |
| 3 |
B-1 Find President Clinton's April 1995 Executive Order pertaining to classi®ed national security information. (p.271) |
| 4 |
B-2 Find a Florida Supreme Court case called State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and State Farm Fire and Casualty Company vs Kunbok Lee and Gisun Lee. (p.271) |
| 5 |
C-1 Find the text of the case issued by the North Carolina Supreme Court in the case of State vs Benjamin Edward Peterson. (p.271) |
| 6 |
C-2 Find the New York Legislature bill that establishes a legal de®nition of computer network and makes harassment via computer a crime. (p.271) |
|
|
|
Dalrymple, P.W. (1990). Retrieval by reformulation in two library catalogs: Toward a cognitive model of searching behavior. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(4), 272-281.
|
| Task type: |
Subject searches |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Task type: |
Known-item questions |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find a book with a title 'something like 30 years of baseball'." (p.279) |
|
|
|
Gwizdka, J. (2009). What a difference a tag cloud makes: Effects of tasks and cognitive abilities on search results interface use. Information Research: An International Electronic Journal, 14(4)
|
| Task type: |
Fact-finding |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Scenario: Your friend is a vegetarian and also enjoys beer. In particular, he likes the British ales. He will be visiting London the next week and has asked you to find a London pub with a vegetarian cuisine. He is travelling now and does not have access to the Internet. You will need to send a text message to him with the information that you find. Your task: Please find a pub in London where vegetarian dishes are served. When you are done, please text him the name of one such pub. (Initial query: london pub)" (p.24) |
| 2 |
"Scenario: Your relative is coming back from India. She will have a one night stopover at Heathrow airport near London. But she forgot to make hotel arrangements earlier and has asked you to find a hotel is close to Heathrow. You will need to send her a text message what you find to his cell phone. Your task: Please find a hotel located around the Heathrow airport. When you are done, please text her the name of this hotel. (Initial query: london hotel )" (p.25) |
|
| Task type: |
Information gathering |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Scenario: Your high school friend has recently got married. He and his bride are travelling through European cities (Venice, Vienna and Paris). Because of the airport staff strike in Paris they have unexpectedly re-routed to London. They called you and asked for information about museums where they can see collections of interest to them. You know they are interested in anthropology, contemporary paintings and photography. You will search on the Internet and send them your recommendations by texting the names of three museums. Your task: Please find three museums in London that will allow them to see such collections. When you are done, please text him the names of the museums you found.
(Initial query: london museums)" (p.24-25) |
| 2 |
"Scenario: Your significant other has asked you for information about some stores in London. She or he will be travelling to London next week and wants to get some LPs, books and t-shirts. You need to find information on where to buy British LPs (a.k.a. vinyl records), design books and cool t-shirts. You will search on the Internet and send your recommendations by texting the names of three stores. Your task: Please find the three stores in London. When you are done, please text him the names of the stores you found. (Initial query: london shopping)" (p.25) |
|
|
|
Aula, A., Khan, R., & Guan, Z. (2010). How does search behavior change as search becomes more difficult? In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on human factors in computing systems (35-44) New York, NY: ACM.
|
| Task type: |
Easy filler tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I was watching the movie "Stand by Me" the other day. I know it is based on a Stephen King story with a different name. What is the name of the story?" (p.37) |
| 2 |
"My friend had a cool program on his iphone that told him what song was playing when he held the phone to the speaker playing the song. I forgot to ask him but really want to get a copy for my own iPhone. What is the name of this program?" (p.37) |
| 3 |
|
| 4 |
|
|
| Task type: |
Difficult tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You once heard that the Dave Matthews Band owns a studio in Virginia but you don't know the name of it. The studio is located outside of Charlottesville and it's in the mountains. What is the name of the studio?" (p.37) |
| 2 |
"I was recently watching footage of one of Prada's fashion shows from a few months ago, where two models fell (and several others stumbled) due to the footwear. Find the names of the models who fell." (p.37) |
|
|
|
Wilson, M. J., & Wilson, M. L. (2013). A comparison of techniques for measuring sensemaking and learning within participant‐generated summaries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(2), 291-306.
|
| Task type: |
Sensemaking task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Ebook Readers. Scenario: You are buying a gift for a close family member. They love reading books but storage is becoming an issue. You have decided to look into buying them an ebook reader. How do ebook readers work? How are they different from reading text on a monitor? What are the advantages of ebooks vs. real books? How easy are they to use?" (p.296) |
|
|
|
Willson, R., & Given, L. M. (2010). The effect of spelling and retrieval system familiarity on search behavior in online public access catalogs: A mixed methods study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(12), 2461-2476.
|
| Task type: |
Search task, easy spelling |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"lemming" (p.2466) |
| 2 |
"civilian" (p.2466) |
| 3 |
"Bolivia" (p.2466) |
| 4 |
"Sigmund Freud" (p.2466) |
|
| Task type: |
Search task, difficult spelling |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"ptarmigan" (p.2466) |
| 2 |
"millennium" (p.2466) |
| 3 |
"Qatar" (p.2466) |
| 4 |
"Michel Foucault" (p.2466) |
|
|
|
Turner, N. B. (2011). Librarians do it differently: Comparative usability testing with students and library staff. Journal of Web Librarianship, 5(4), 286-298.
|
| Task type: |
Known-item |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Locate the book Beloved by Toni Morrison. Is this book available for you to check out of the library?" (p.290) |
| 2 |
"Find and access the full text of an article from the online journal Nature." (p.291). |
|
| Task type: |
Subject Search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Locate an electronic journal in the subject of psychology." (p.290) |
| 2 |
"Find a multi-media item, like a video, for a presentation you are doing on health and the college student." (p.291) |
| 3 |
"Show me how you might locate first-hand accounts or primary resources (diaries, newspaper articles) by people who worked on the Erie Canal (1840-1860)." (p.291) |
|
|
|
Sahib, N. G., Tombros, A., & Stockman, T. (2012). A comparative analysis of the information‐seeking behavior of visually impaired and sighted searchers. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,63(2), 377-391.
|
| Task type: |
Complex search task |
| Task type definition: |
"Lack of structure in search task definition. Include task characteristics such as uncertainty and vagueness. Lack of prior knowledge on search domain. Require several search iterations.
Information from multiple sources has to be aggregated. Involve a decision-making stage after relevant information has been compared and analyzed." (p.381) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You will soon be on leave from work and you would like to travel to X. You want to find out the best ways of getting to X and the different places to stay. You are also interested in the places to visit, the different things to do while you are on vacation, the places to eat etc. Use your favorite online search engine to help you plan your vacation to X" (p.382). |
| 2 |
"Your friends have been talking a lot about e-books recently and you realize you do not know much about them. You decide to find out more about e-books online using an online search engine. You are particularly interested in ways to read e-books, the formats in which they are published and the devices/software you would need to use them. Gather the information on e-books and decide which one you would prefer" (p.382). |
|
|
|
Wu, W., Kelly, D., Edwards, A., & Arguello, J. (2012). Grannies, tanning beds, tattoos and NASCAR: Evaluation of search tasks with varying levels of cognitive complexity. In Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context Symposium (254-257). New York, NY: ACM.
|
| Task type: |
Remember |
| Task type definition: |
"Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You recently watched a documentary about people living with HIV in the United States. You thought the disease was nearly eradicated, and are now curious to know more about the prevalence of the disease. Specifically, how many people in the US are currently living with HIV?" (p.257) |
| 2 |
"You recently watched a show on the Discovery Channel, about fish that can live so deep in the ocean that they're in darkness most or all of the time. This made you more curious about the deepest point in the ocean. What is the name of the deepest point in the ocean?" (p.257) |
|
| Task type: |
Understand |
| Task type definition: |
"Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting,
exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your nephew is considering trying out for a football team. Most of your relatives are supportive of the idea, but you think the sport is dangerous and are worried about the potential health risks. Specifically, what are some long-term health risks faced by football players?" (p.257) |
| 2 |
"You recently became acquainted with one of the farmers at the local farmer's market. One day, over lunch, he was on a rant about how people are ruining the soil. He was clearly upset, so you're interested in finding out more. What are some human activities that degrade soil fertility?" (p.257) |
|
| Task type: |
Apply |
| Task type definition: |
"Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
|
| Task type: |
Analyze |
| Task type definition: |
"Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Having heard some of the recent reports on risks of natural tanning, it seems like a better idea to sport an artificial tan this summer. What are some of the different types of artificial tanning methods? What are the health risks associated with each method?" (p.257) |
| 2 |
"You recently became involved with a conservation group that picks-up trash from local waterways. One of the group members told you that your work was important because it helps keep pollution out of the ocean. What are some of the different types of ocean pollutants? What environmental risks are associated with each pollutant?" (p.257) |
|
| Task type: |
Evaluate |
| Task type definition: |
"Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"One of your siblings got a spur of the moment tattoo and now regrets it. What are the current available methods for tattoo removal, and how effective are they? Which method do you think is best? Why?" (p.257) |
| 2 |
"You have noticed that online services such as Facebook have replaced face-to-face interactions. You can see the advantages of this style of communication, but your sibling argues that people are losing their ability to communicate face-to-face. In general, does use of computers for communication have a positive or negative impact on people's face-to-face social skills?" (p.257) |
|
| Task type: |
Create |
| Task type definition: |
"Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing." (p.255) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your great granny's doctor has told her that getting more exercise will increase her fitness and help her avoid injuries. Your great granny does not use the Internet and has asked you
to create an exercise program for her. She is 90-years old. Put
together two thirty-minute low-impact exercise programs that
she could alternate between during the week." (p.257) |
| 2 |
"After the NASCAR season opened this year, your niece became really interested in soapbox derby racing. Since her parents are both really busy, you've agreed to help her build a car so that she can enter a local race. The first step is to figure out how to build a car. Identify some basic designs that you might use and create a basic plan for constructing the car." (p.257) |
|
|
|
Mason, L., Boldrin, A., & Ariasi, N. (2010). Epistemic metacognition in context: Evaluating and learning online information. Metacognition and Learning, 5(1), 67-90.
|
| Task type: |
Searching task |
| Task type definition: |
"what caused the extinction of dinosaurs?" (p.75) |
|
|
MacKay, B., & Watters, C. (2012). An examination of multisession web tasks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(6), 1183-1197.
|
| Task type: |
Fact-finding |
| Task type definition: |
"answering a well-defined question" (p.1189). |
| Task type: |
Information gathering |
| Task type definition: |
"in-depth searching to make a decision or gather knowledge" (p.1190). |
| Task type: |
Transactions |
| Task type definition: |
"performing online services such as registering for a conference or making an online purchase" (p.1190) |
| Task type: |
Communications |
| Task type definition: |
"communicating with others" (p.1190) |
| Task type: |
Maintenance |
| Task type definition: |
"changing or updating an online resource such as a web page" (p.1190). |
|
|
He, D., Wu, D., Yue, Z., Fu, A., & Vo, K.T.. (2012). Undergraduate students' interaction with online information resources in their academic tasks. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 64(6), 615-640.
|
| Task type: |
Simple individual academic tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"looking for definitions of concepts, looking for books, looking for articles, and looking for answers to a specific question" (p.621) |
| Task type: |
Complex individual academic tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"preparing for class assignments, preparing for a research paper, and preparing for an exam" (p.621) |
| Task type: |
Collaborative academic tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"the tasks involved in preparing for group projects and for co-authored research papers" (p.621). |
|
|
Hargittai, E., Fullerton, L., Menchen-Trevino, E., & Thomas, K. Y. (2010). Trust online: Young adults' evaluation of web content. International Journal of Communication, 4, 468-494.
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Where do you look for information about current events?" (p.488) |
| 2 |
"Here is a hypothetical. You have a strong opinion about an issue and a friend recommends that
you write an email to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee expressing your concerns.
Where do you send the message to reach this person?" (p.488) |
| 3 |
"You need to read Act 2 Scene 4 from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by tomorrow for class.
What is a quick way you can get access to it?" (p.488). |
| 4 |
"You are at home in the middle of summer. A friend calls you frantically on Friday at midnight. The
condom broke while she was with her boyfriend. What can she do to prevent pregnancy?
Remember, neither of you is on campus. She lives in South Bend, Indiana." (p.488) |
| 5 |
"(A) A friend of yours is graduating from high school. He has a 2.5 GPA and scored 24 on the
ACT. What are the chances that he will get into the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign?
[Wait until R finishes task]
(B) . . . and how about Columbia College here in the city [Chicago]?" (p.488) |
| 6 |
"(A) Your cousin is concerned about her health and wants to get an HIV test. She is not a
student at any school, but lives here in Chicago. Can you help her find a place to get such a
test? Where is the location of such a place and at what times are they open for this service?
[Wait for R to find a place]
(B) Let’s say you want to go with her. How do you get to this place from UIC [University of
Illinois, Chicago]? [Wait for R to approach the question and see if R figures out a method. Then
follow up with the next question if R was not using public transportation in that case.] Can you
get there using public transportation? How?" (p.488) |
| 7 |
"You have to create a poster presentation for class. You’re most concerned about how such a
document should look and how it can be created with minimal effort on your part concerning the
layout. Find help online with your poster layout so that you’re ready to go with your own project." (p.488) |
| 8 |
"Does Microsoft Word store information about the author of a document? [Wait for response.] It
turns out it does. How can you change the settings in the program so this information is not
readily available when the document is shared? [Have R do it.]
Is it possible to do this so no future documents have the identifying information? That is, change
things so that you don’t have to do this on every new document you start? [Wait for R to
respond.] It is possible.
Please find out how this can be done. [Don’t have R actually do this, just have R find out
information about how to do it.]" (p.489). |
| 9 |
"You are helping your nephew with his homework. He needs a map of Charles Darwin's voyage
around the globe, the entire voyage. Help him get such a map." (p.489) |
| 10 |
"You need to address a letter to the following person and do not know whether this is a man or a
woman. The person's first name is Harshini. Can you figure out whether this is likely a man or a
woman?" (p.489) |
| 11 |
"You are trying to figure out how to write a resume for a summer internship. Find an authoritative
source on the subject that helps you identify four key things that need to be on the front page of
your resume." (p.489) |
| 12 |
"(A) I heard that in Victorian times, people could carry a special kind of notebook around with
them and use it to copy quotations they read and clever sayings they heard. There was a specific
name for that kind of notebook, but I've forgotten what it is. Can you tell me?
(B) You are trying to figure out what two businesses are next door to Brandy Ho's Chinese
restaurant in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. What are they?" (p.489) |
|
|
|
Gross, J. & Sheridan, L. (2011). Web scale discovery: The user experience. New Library World, 112(5/6), 236-247.
|
| Task type: |
General subject search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You have been asked to write an essay on the following: with the advent of social networking sites cyber-bullying has been a serious issue in Australian schools. Discuss the issues of duty of care and school liability in relation to cyber-bullying. Find a book or journal article you think will help you prepare your answer" (p.240). |
|
| Task type: |
Known item, journal citation |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You have been asked to read the article: “The ‘Jewish war’: Goebbels and the antisemitic campaigns of the Nazi propaganda ministry”. It was written by Jeffrey Herf, and is in Vol. 19, No. 1, of the Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, from 04/2005. The article starts on page 51 and ends on page 80. Please find and download a copy of this article" (p.240) |
|
| Task type: |
Known item, book citation |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You have been given the reference: Gregory, E., and Gregory, E. (2008). Learning to Read in a New Language: Making Sense of Words and Worlds, London: SAGE. Please find the call number (shelf number) of this item" (p. 240). |
|
| Task type: |
Known item, electronic reserve |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You are studying ACS4101 and your lecturer has told you that a chapter of the book Prehistory of Australia by Derek John Mulvaney has been put on electronic reserve and is available for download. Using the library site (www.ecu.edu.au/library) find and download a copy of this chapter" (p.240) |
|
|
|
Gardois, P., Calabrese, R., Colombi, N., Deplano, A., Lingua, C., Longo, F., Villanaccit, M., Miniero, R., Piga, A. (2011). Effectiveness of bibliographic searches performed by paediatric residents and interns assisted by librarians. A randomised controlled trial. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 28(4), 273-284.
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Gaia is a 9-month-old girl with serious sleep disorders. Her parents bring her to the paediatrician for the first time to evaluate the situation. Gaia is not able to sleep for more than half an hour at a time, causing restless nights to all the family. Her parents, being visibly in trouble, ask for a definitive solution. It seems that they have tried everything to reassure their child and to promote quiet nights, without positive results. They ask if it is possible to administer a drug that they have heard may resolve sleep disturbance in children. Is treatment with niaprazine effective in improving nocturnal sleep in children with sleep disorders?" (p. 282). |
| 2 |
"Mark, a 4-and-a-half-year-old boy, comes to the paediatrician with snoring problems, which have persisted since he was 2 years old. For the last 3 months, he has repeatedly stopped breathing in his sleep, while tossing a lot. His parents are very worried because an otorhinolaryngologist has diagnosed adenotonsillar hypertrophy, highly recommending removal of adenoids and a tonsillectomy to solve sleep apnoea. They ask for the possibility to avoid surgery by administering a drug to reduce the number of sleep apnoeas. Which treatment is more effective in reducing the number of apnoea episodes in children with sleep apnoea syndrome?" (p.282). |
| 3 |
"Ann, a 7-year-old girl, shows symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection and fever (38.8°C for the past 2 days) treated with paracetamol, 12.5 mg/kg every 6 hours by rectal administration. After each dose, her body temperature drops to subfebrile values for <1 hour before rising again. Her mother asks the paediatrician if it is possible to administer an alternative therapy for a more effective fever control Is ibuprofen more effective alone or in combination with paracetamol in controlling fever in children?" (p.282) |
| 4 |
"Louis, a 2-year-old boy, comes to the ER for barking cough started suddenly during the night and worsened in the early morning. His body temperature is 37°C and he looks quiet, but during the visit he starts crying, while breathing deteriorates. Laryngitis is diagnosed. Which therapy is more effective: inhaled corticosteroids, adrenaline by inhalation or a combination of both?" (p.283). |
| 5 |
"Martha, a 2-and-a-half-year-old healthy girl, has had a temperature for the past 2 days (<39°C) and rhinitis treated with paracetamol (15 mg/kg). A few hours before, she had a 1-minute generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Clinical examination reveals good general health, T = 37.8°C, little evidence of neurological deficits, no meningeal irritation signs, swollen pharynx. Personal and family medical histories record no previous instances of similar diseases. A diagnosis of simple febrile seizures is made. Her worried parents ask for a therapy to prevent further episodes. Is long-term drug prophylaxis useful after the first onset of simple febrile seizures?" (p.283) |
| 6 |
"Andrew, a 17-month-old infant, for the past few days has had a cold with runny nose, cough and fever up to 38.8°C, treated with paracetamol until the day before. His parents report that he is more irritable than usual and that he wakes up crying several times during the night. At the moment, his body temperature is normal. Physical examination does not find particular symptoms, except for a slight reddening of the left tympanic membrane without middle ear fluid, and an extroversion of the right tympanic membrane with white liquid inside. Otitis media is diagnosed. Is antibiotic therapy indicated in such a child?" (p.283) |
| 7 |
"Laurence is a 5-year-old boy. His parents have noticed a non-symptomatic lump on the side of the neck. Clinical history does not report any significant problems nor recent infectious episodes. The paediatrician detects the presence of a 5 × 6 cm lymph node package and some small palpable lymph nodes, respectively, on his neck’s right and left side, without other findings. Is antibiotic therapy indicated in a child with isolated lymphadenopathy, or is simple observation to be preferred?" (p.283) |
| 8 |
"Albert, a 7-year-old boy, has been suffering from skin lesions at the back of his right hand for a few days. Clinical examination reveals crusted yellow-brown lesions, without fever or lymphadenopathy. The paediatrician diagnoses impetigo, prescribing topical antibiotic therapy with mupirocin. Albert’s mother, worried about possible contagion, asks whether the prescribed ointment is sufficient, or oral antibiotic is to be preferred Is topical therapy with mupirocin effective for clinical recovery in a school-aged child with impetigo?" (p.283) |
| 9 |
"Lisa, a 5-year-old girl, comes to the paediatrician because her mother has noticed nits in her hair. She was treated twice for head lice 2 months ago (once with permethrin and once with malathion), and after each treatment, she was found free from insects and eggs at inspection before coming back to school. Also, the current episode has occurred a few days after returning to school, with the usual signs and symptoms (live insects, eggs and itching). The paediatrician detects the presence of only 1 live insect and some eggs attached to the hair base, behind the ears and the neck, with reddened and peeled-off scalp. Lisa usually complains about burning and itching after applying head lice products. Her mother is worried about possible toxicity of these compounds and asks for a less irritating but equally effective treatment. Is treatment with physical/chemical agents a valid alternative to conventionally used insecticides (permethrin, malathion, pyrethrins) in children with recurrent head lice?" (p.284). |
| 10 |
"Eileen, a 3-year-old girl, comes to the ambulatory centre for a probable urinary tract infection (UTI), with fever and urination pain. The urinary stick analysis shows white blood cells, nitrites and blood. The paediatrician decides to start a 7–10 day oral antibiotic therapy immediately after urine collection for microscopy and culture. As Eileen recently underwent antibiotic therapy, her parents ask if a shorter course (2–4 days) can have the same efficacy. Is short course antibiotic therapy (2–4 day) as effective as long course (7–14 day) in children with UTI?" (p.284) |
| 11 |
"Julia, a 1-month-old infant, for a few days has been presenting with inconsolable crying of variable duration, with leg retraction towards the abdomen as if suffering from abdominal pain. She is breast-milk-fed and her growth is regular; no pathological findings are observed. Her mother reports having tried fennel infusion that the child does not seem to like. A friend, who had the same problem with his son, has suggested some drops of simeticone. Julia’s mother asks for advice Is simeticone effective in significantly reducing colic in infants with gas in the abdomen?" (p.284). |
| 12 |
"Luke is a 6-year-old boy allergic to dust mites and cat dander. He has been suffering from allergic asthma for about 1 and a half years, with periodic exacerbations treated with beta-2 agonists and inhaled corticosteroids. Because of recent increase in asthma episodes, his mother asks the paediatrician if it is possible to administer a drug to prevent the attacks. The paediatrician prescribes montelukast (one 5-mg tablet in the evening for 2 months), trying to reassure her. Is a leukotriene receptor antagonist therapy such as montelukast effective in reducing attack recurrence in a child with recurrent allergic asthma?" (p.284) |
|
|
|
Evans, B. M., Kairam, S., & Pirolli, P. (2010). Do your friends make you smarter?: An analysis of social strategies in online information seeking. Information Processing and Management, 46(6), 679-692.
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory search task |
| Task type definition: |
"We wanted to observe the search process for exploratory queries, or ones that involve incremental learning and investigating (Marchionini, 2006). Thus, we required questions that were unfamiliar and also “Google-hard.” We determined that a question was “Google-hard” if, even after several attempts in major search engines, very few result listings had high information scent" (681). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"If we lowered the US national speed limit to 55 miles per hour (MPH) (89 km/h), how many fewer barrels of oil would the US consume every year?" (p. 681) |
| 2 |
"What role does pyrolytic oil (or pyrolysis) play in the debate over carbon emissions?" (p.681) |
|
|
|
Eastin, M.S., Yang, M. & Nathanson, A. (2006) Children of the net: An empirical exploration into the evaluation of internet content. Journal of Broadcasting &Electronic Media, 50(2), 211-230.
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Locate information about "pugs" through a keyword search" (p.219) |
|
|
|
Dimopoulos, K., & Asimakopoulos, A. (2010). Science on the web: Secondary school students' navigation patterns and preferred pages' characteristics. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 19(3), 246-265.
|
| Task type: |
Search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Provide the definition of cloning" (p. 251). |
| 2 |
"Describe the procedure of nuclear cloning" (p.251). |
| 3 |
"Find out the most important advantages and disadvantages of cloning" (p.251).
|
| 4 |
"Mention ethical dilemmas raised by cloning as a reproduction method" (p.251). |
| 5 |
"Describe the potential applications of cloning with regard to treatment of human health problems" (p.251). |
|
|
|
Choi, Y. (2010). Effects of contextual factors on image searching on the web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(10), 2011-2028.
|
| Task type: |
Search task - academic related |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Preparing a PowerPoint presentation or a project for a class; writing a research paper for a class" (p.2017) |
|
| Task type: |
Search task - work related |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Creating a slideshow on the production of ethanol and other biofuels for internship work; preparing a publication for incoming freshmen students; preparing a college newspaper article or a yearbook; making a Web site for the university career services; volunteering work for an attorney general campaign" (p.2017) |
|
| Task type: |
Search task - personal activities or interests |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Blog writing; bike building; e-shopping; activity participation; collage making for Mother's Day gift; getting to know a place for a mission trip" (p.2017) |
|
|
|
Barsky, E & Bar-Ilan, J. (2005). From the search problem through query formulation to results on the web. Online Information Review, 29(1), 75-89.
|
| Task type: |
Search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Provide the leading companies of the industry you are covering" (p.82). |
| 2 |
"Provide the revenues of the companies identified in Question 1" (p.82). |
| 3 |
"Provide the market forecast for the chosen industry" (p.82).
|
| 4 |
"Provide the market segment of the retrieved companies" (p.82). |
| 5 |
"Provide categorization of the retrieved sources" (p.82). |
|
|
|
Barsky, E., & Bar‐Ilan, J. (2012). The impact of task phrasing on the choice of search keywords and on the search process and success. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(10), 1987-2005.
|
| Task type: |
Web search, matching phrasing |
| Task type definition: |
"A matching phrasing was a task whose wording matched the text of the target page" (p.1987). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"What is the most important concern US adults have about their financial future today, according to a 2007 poll?" (p.1991) |
| 2 |
"What was the overall forecast for the total consumer online spending in 2006 in the US?" (p.1991) |
| 3 |
"[English translation]: According to a survey conducted in Israel, what is the major criterion that impacts the choice of bank by Israeli financial consumers? " (p.1991) |
| 4 |
"[English translation]: According to data from research that was conducted in 2005 in Israel, what percentage of children, according to their own words, tends to correspond with or talk to unfamiliar people over the Internet?" (p.1991) |
|
| Task type: |
Web search, nonmatching phrasing |
| Task type definition: |
"A nonmatching phrasing was synonymous with the matching phrasing, but had no match with the target page" (p.1987). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"What were the total estimates of all Internet shopping expenditures of Americans in 2006?" (p.1991) |
| 2 |
"According to adult Americans polled in a 2007 study, which financial aspect of their future bothers them the most today?" (p.1991) |
| 3 |
"[English translation]: According to Israeli research from 2005, what percentage of children says about themselves that they are inclined to converse with strangers over the Internet or write to them?" (p.1991) |
| 4 |
"[English translation]: According to research prepared in Israel, what is the crucial consideration for joining a certain bank among Israeli clients?" (p.1991) |
|
|
|
Uddin, M.N., & Janecek, P. (2007). Performance and usability testing of multidimensional taxonomy in web site search and navigation. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 8(1), 18-33.
|
| Task type: |
Structured tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 1: Look for scholarship information for a masters program. (p.25) |
| 2 |
Task 2: Look for staff recruitment information. (p.25) |
| 3 |
Task 3: Look for research and associated faculty member information within your interested area. (p.25) |
|
|
|
Kelly, D., Cushing, A., Dostert, M., Niu, X., & Gyllstrom, K. (2010). Effects of popularity and quality on the usage of query suggestions during information search. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 45-54.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
354: journalist risks - Identify instances where a journalist has been put at risk (e.g., killed, arrested or taken hostage) in the performance of his work. (p.48) |
| 2 |
426: law enforcement, dogs - Provide information on the use of dogs worldwide for law enforcement purposes. (p. 48) |
| 3 |
393: mercy killing - Identify documents that discuss mercy killings. (p.48) |
| 4 |
638: wrongful convictions - Find documents that discuss freed prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted based on faulty forensic evidence, poor police work, or false testimony. (p.48) |
|
|
|
Morris, D., Morris, M.R., & Venolia, G. (2008). SearchBar: A search-centric web history for task resumption and information re-finding. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1207-1216.
|
| Task type: |
Re-finding tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"re-finding previously encountered online content" (p.1209) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
During the first of two sessions, "the experimenter sent an IM (playing the role of the CEO) asking for the name of a restaurant in Chicago that served New York Style pizza where he could take a client for lunch during a business trip" (p.1211). During the second session, an instant message from "the CEO" asked for "the name of a hotel located near the recommended pizza restaurant" (p.1212). |
| 2 |
During the first of two sessions, the experimenter sent an IM (playing the role of the CEO) asking the study participant "to recommend a digital camera he should purchase that met certain resolution and zoom requirements" (p.1211). During the second session, an instant message from "the CEO" asked for "the name of a store selling the recommended camera for a good price" (p.1212). |
| 3 |
During the first of two sessions, the experimenter sent an IM (playing the role of the CEO) "requesting statistics about the incidence of the flu during 2005 and 2006, in order to help him decide whether to pay for employee flu shots" (p.1211). During the second session, an instant message from "the CEO" asked for "a comparison of the 2005-2006 flu incidence with that of prior years" (p.1212). |
|
|
|
Rieh, S.Y., Kim, Y.-M., & Markey, K. (2012). Amount of invested mental effort (AIME) in online searching. Information Processing & Management, 48, 1136-1150.
|
| Task type: |
Research Task |
| Task type definition: |
Searching for an academic purpose; designed to be generic, "so that students can adapt their own research topic" (p.1140) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I would like you to do a search for your term paper topic. If you’ve already done some research, just pick up from where you left off. Don’t repeat searches you’ve done in the past [Research Task]." (p.1140) |
|
| Task type: |
Product Task |
| Task type definition: |
Searching for product information on the Web; "less generic because there might be high level of variance in product search among college students depending on their familiarity or experience with this topic" (p.1140) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You want to buy a new digital camera and you need to decide which model you would buy. You would like to read some reviews about digital camera to help you make a decision [Product Task]." (p.1140) |
|
|
|
Portnoy, F. (2012). Avoiding Ad Avoidance: Factors Affecting The Perception Of Online Banner Ads. Unpublished dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
|
| Task type: |
Known-item search |
| Task type definition: |
Discrete and well-structured objects such as numbers, names, short statements, or specific files of text or other media. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
South Korea
1. How many pieces of historic relics were excavated from Anapji Pond?
a. 9000
b. 18000
c. 1700
d. 33000*
2. How many square kilometers does the Seoraksan National Park cover?
a. 327.4
b. 13.9
c. 470.1
d. 163.6*
3. To which city the National Museum of Korea was relocated?
a. Yongsan-gu*
b. Cheongju
c. Incheon
d. Seongnam
4. In which year did King Taejong move to Hanyang?
a. 1405*
b. 535
c. 1741
d. 236
5. How many malls are located in Dongdaemun Market?
a. 7
b. 46
c. 26*
d. 43
|
| 2 |
Slovakia
1. Which queen restored the significance of Bratislava?
a. Queen Maria Theresa*
b. Queen Mary
c. Queen Elizabeth II
d. Queen Teuta
2. In which year the Slovak National Museum was established?
a. 1903
b. 1961*
c. 1973
d. 1993
3. What is the name of the architect who designed the National House?
a. Ilija Arnautović
b. Matevž Čelik
c. Emil Beluš*
d. Niko Kralj
4. Which part in the Orava Castle is open for the public?
a. Servants' Quarter
b. Gate Hoise
c. Tower
d. Dungeon*
5. How many pools can be found in Tatralandia?
a. 7
b. 12
c. 25
d. 11*
|
| 3 |
Paraguay
1. Which collected in the Museo del Barro is most popular?
a. Mayan dresses
b. Balam arrowheads
c. Guarani ceramics*
d. Votan paintings
2. What was the military rank of Mariano Recalde?
a. Captain
b. Lieutenant*
c. General
d. Colonel
3. How many waterfalls are in Iguassu Falls?
a. 275*
b. 55
c. 215
d. 116
4. What is the meaning of the logo that Moses Bertoni used in his forms?
a. Humble immigrant
b. Paraguay is me
c. From the jungle*
d. Victory and justice
5. How many years did it tale to build the Holy Trinity of Paraná?
a. 61*
b. 97
c. 194
d. 121
|
| 4 |
Moldova
1. What is the last name of the architect who designed the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History?
a. Tsigankov*
b. Galchinski
c. Meldaze
d. Kara
2. In what depth the bottles of wine are store in Milestii Mici?
a. 80 meters*
b. 55 meters
c. 90 meters
d. 140 meters
3. Before reopening in 1990, what year was the Saharna Monastery closed?
a. 1979
b. 1783
c. 1935
d. 1964*
4. Which structure is located above the entrance to Soroca Fort?
a. Visitor Center
b. Wine Celler
c. Guard Post
d. Military Church*
5. What is the distance between Chisinau and Serpeni monument?
a. 39 km
b. 55 km*
c. 85 km
d. 40 km
|
| 5 |
Guatemala
1. Which airport was affected by the 1998 eruption of Pacaya Volcano?
a. Chiquimula
b. La Aurora*
c. Mundo Maya
d. Puerto Barrios
2. What was the type of entertainer seen at Parque Central?
a. Story Teller
b. Juggler*
c. Clown
d. Musician
3. How many archeological exhibits are displayed at the Museo Popol Vuh?
a. 800
b. 400*
c. 700
d. 500
4. How many square miles of jungle comprise Tikal National Park?
a. 222*
b. 286
c. 64
d. 383
5. Which doors should tourists use when they enter the church in ChiChi Market?
a. Yellow doors
b. Back doors
c. White doors
d. Side doors*
|
| 6 |
Bulgaria
1. On the foundations of which basilica the archaeological museum was built?
a. Basilica of the Holy Mother of God Eleusa
b. Basilica of the Merciful Virgin
c. Basilica of Pliska
d. Basilica of Bishop Yoan*
2. What is Olimpi Panov famous for?
a. Established the central bank
b. First president of Bulgarua
c. Liberated Bulgaria from the Ottoman rule*
d. Signed a truce with Prussia
3. What is the name of the town where the Museum of Wood-Carving is located?
a. Kazanluk
b. Peshtera
c. Tryavna*
d. Velingrad
4. In which year was the Sofia Synagogue partially destroyed as a result of bombings?
a. 1916
b. 1944*
c. 1943
d. 1932
5. In which date does the Fire Dance take place?
a. June 3rd*
b. July 28th
c. March 11th
d. September 19th
|
| 7 |
Namibia
1. What is the name of the ocean current that affects the temperature of the Skeleton Coast Park?
a. Mocambique
b. Oyashio
c. Canary
d. Benguela*
2. How many bird species have been recorded at The Daan Viljoen Game Reserve?
a. 200*
b. 150
c. 240
d. 120
3. What does the name "Etosha" mean?
a. Salt land
b. Place of worship
c. Bushland
d. Place of dry water*
4. What is the name of the minority group of people living in Bwabwata National Park?
a. Lozian
b. Caprivian*
c. Subian
d. Mbukushuan
5. Which region in Namibia has example of Bushman rock art?
a. Erongo
b. Damaraland*
c. Ohangwena
d. Kaokoland |
| 8 |
Turkey
1. Which ruler built the first building of Hagia Sophia church?
a. Maximinus I
b. Gordian I
c. Constantius I*
d. Licinius I
2. What does the name "Pamukkale" mean?
a. Pool of sapphire
b. Majestic view
c. Cotton castle*
d. Water of the earth
3. What is the cost of admission to the terrace houses?
a. € 14.15
b. € 2.85
c. € 8.35*
d. € 10.15
4. What is one of the flower patterns used in the tiles covering the Blue Mosque?
a. Banksia
b. Cornflower
c. Gladiolus
d. Tulip*
5. Whom did the Attalids fight against during the first and second Macedonian Wars?
a. Philip V of Macedon*
b. Hannibal of Carthage
c. Nabis of Sparta
d. Pandion II of Athens
|
| 9 |
Djibouti
1. What is Djibouti's national pastime?
a. Playing Backgammon
b. Chewing Qat*
c. Hunting Jerboa
d. Watching a local TV show
2. Which species flourishes in Lake Assal?
a. Bacteria*
b. Lizards
c. Insects
d. Scorpions
3. Which foreign Djibouti residents favor Khor Ambado?
a. German
b. English
c. French*
d. Dutch
4. For which type of bird Lake Abbe is known?
a. Imperial Eagles
b. Storm-Petrels
c. Pelicans
d. Flamingos*
5. In the 19th century, how many Ethiopian slaves were shipped via Tadjoura per year?
a. 8000
b. 12000
c. 6000*
d. 4000
|
| 10 |
Bhutan
1. Which king the National Memorial Chorten honors?
a. Tenzin Drukgye
b. Jigme Dorji Wangchuck*
c. Mipham Wangpo
d. Chhogyel Sonam Gyaltshen
2. How many temples did King Songtsen Gampo build?
a. 61
b. 263
c. 108*
d. 141
3. By which name Gyelchok’s descendants are known for?
a. Children of Parob
b. Lords of Humrel*
c. Singye Eagles
d. Drugyel Sun-rays
4. What does the word "Dochey" mean?
a. Leader
b. Courtyard*
c. River
d. Mansion
5. Which animal is being referred to as a "bee-stung moose”?
a. Seadragon
b. Sun Bear
c. Aye-aye
d. Takin*
|
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory search |
| Task type definition: |
...requires the user to perform multiple iterations of their queries and to interpret a variety of information representations while performing qualitative judgments of the information retrieved. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1. Bhutan: The Bhutanese measure their quality of life using the "gross domestic happiness." Based on the articles you read, please postulate why they chose this measure as oppose to the standard income measure. Does this measure describe their quality of life more accurately? |
| 2 |
2. South Korea: Does the natural surrounding affect the traditional culture in South Korea? Please explain your answer. |
| 3 |
3. Bulgaria: Bulgarian culture has been influenced by many religious traditions. Based on the articles you read, how do modern Bulgarians integrate these traditions in the current day? |
| 4 |
4. Slovakia: What is your perceived condition of the infrastructure in Slovakia? Does that affect your interest to travel in this country? Please explain. |
| 5 |
5. Moldova: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova has been making attempts to restore its national heritage. Based on the articles your reviewed, were they successful? Please explain. |
| 6 |
6. Paraguay: What effect (if any) did the European settlers had on Paraguay? Please refer to the articles in your response. |
| 7 |
7. Guatemala: What is the relationship between descendants of the Spanish settlers and the indigenous people of Guatemala? |
| 8 |
8. Namibia: Does the Namibian government allocate sufficient resources to protect its natural and wildlife resources? Please explain your answer based on the articles you read. |
| 9 |
10. Djibouti: How safe it is to travel in Djibouti? Please explain your rationale. |
|
|
|
Melguizo, M.C.P., Vidya, U., & Oostendorp, H. (2012). Seeking information online: The influence of menu type, navigation path complexity and spatial ability on information gathering tasks. Behaviour & Information Technology, 31(1), 59-70.
|
| Task type: |
Information gathering |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How many millions of inhabitants of Zambia live in cities? |
| 2 |
Which river empties into the Indian Ocean and which country is it’s source? |
| 3 |
The tallest of all land-living animal species lives in Zambia. What is its closest relative and what are the Latin names of the two animals? |
|
|
|
Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., Williams, P., & Dobrowolski, T. (2004). Re-appraising information seeking behaviour in a digital environment: Bouncers, checkers, returnees and the like. Journal of Documentation, 60(1), 24-39.
|
|
Tombros, A., Ruthven, I. and Jose, J.M. (2005). How users assess web pages for information-seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 56(4), 327-344.
|
| Task type: |
Background search |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants were asked to find general background information on a topic, essentially as much information as possible on a topic. In our study the participants were asked to find information on the demographics of the Internet." (p.331) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are considering a career as a web-page designer and have an interview next week with a
company you really want to work for. The position will involve designing sites to allow local
companies to sell their products on-line. You realize, however, that you know little about who
actually uses the Internet.
To impress your future employers you think it is a good idea to get some information on what
kind of people have Internet access so you can discuss how you would design sites to attract
these groups of people. |
| 2 |
"You are considering a career as a web-page designer and have an interview next week with a company you really want to work for. The position will involve designing sites to allow local companies to sell their products on-line. You realize, however, that you know little about who actually uses the Internet.
To impress your future employers you think it is a good idea to get some information on what kind of people have Internet access so you can discuss how you would design sites to attract these groups of people." (p.330) |
|
| Task type: |
Decision task |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants had to gather information and make a decision based on the information found while searching. The participants, in this case, were asked to decide on the best hi-fi speakers available in their own price range." (p.331) |
| Task type: |
Many items task |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants were asked to compile a list of items. This task specifically asked the participants to compile a list of interesting things to do over a weekend in the city of Kyoto." (p.331) |
|
|
Pan, B., Hembrooke, H., Joachims, T., Lorigo, L., Gay, G., and Granka, L. (2007). In Google we trust: users' decisions on rank, position, and relevance. Journal of CMC 12, 801-823.
|
| Task type: |
Navigation |
| Task type definition: |
"...navigational tasks involve searching for a particular Web page (Broder, 2002)." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the homepage of Michael Jordan, the statistician. |
| 2 |
Find the page displaying the route map for Greyhound buses. |
| 3 |
Find the homepage of the 1000 Acres Dude Ranch. |
| 4 |
Find the homepage for graduate housing at Carnegie Mellon University |
| 5 |
Find the homepage of Emeril—the chef who has a television cooking program. |
|
| Task type: |
Informational |
| Task type definition: |
"Informational tasks require finding a particular fact..." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Where is the tallest mountain in New York located? |
| 2 |
With the heavy coverage of the democratic presidential primaries, you are excited to cast your vote for a candidate. When are/were democratic presidential primaries in New York? |
| 3 |
Which actor starred as the main character in the original Time Machine movie? |
| 4 |
A friend told you that Mr. Cornell used to live close to campus—near University and Steward Ave. Does anybody live in his house now? If so, who? |
| 5 |
What is the name of the researcher who discovered the first modern antibiotic? |
|
|
|
Van Pulis, N.. & Ludy, L. E. (1988). Subject searching in an online catalog with authority control. College & Research Libraries, 49(6), 523-533.
|
|
Stielow, F. and Tibbo, H. (1988). The negative search, online reference and the humanities. Research Quarterly, 27, 358-365.
|
|
Harris, M. ( 1986). Sequence analysis of moves in online searching. Canadian Journal of information Science, 11, 35-56.
|
|
Hancock, M. (1987). Subject searching behaviour at the library catalogue and at the shelves: Implications for online interactive catalogues. Journal of Documentation, 43, 303-321.
|
|
Xie, I., & Joo, S. (2010). Transitions in search tactics during the web-based search process. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 61(11), 2188-2205.
|
|
Tenopir, C., Wang, P., Pollard, R., et al. (2004). Use of electronic science journals in the undergraduate curriculum: An observational study. ASIST Proceedings, 64-71.
|
| Task type: |
Search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
|
|
Du, J.T., & Evans, N. (2011). Academic users' information searching on research topics: Characteristics of research tasks and search strategies. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(4), 299-306.
|
| Task type: |
Academic research task |
| Task type definition: |
Thesis research actually being conducted by PhD students. The characteristics of a research tasks include: explorative, uncertain topic, multifaceted, logical, variable, and successive (updated). |
|
|
Li, Y., Chen, Y., Liu, J., Cheng, Y., Wang, X., Chen, P., & Wang, Q. (2011). Measuring task complexity in informaiton search from user's perspective. ASIST Proceedings, n.p.
|
| Task type: |
Simulated search task |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are a senior who is preparing for graduate enrollment examination. You need to buy some mathematic books written for the examination, which should cover calculus, probability and statistics, and linear algebra. These books should include main points in these areas and the exam for graduate enrollment examination each year. Please do a search to locate appropriate books, including the book title, publishers, and editors (at least three books should be found). |
| 2 |
You are a freshman in the Mathematical department. You are planning to apply for double-degree in economics. So, you need to search for some information, including different majors in the School of Economics, curriculum, course schedule, job marketing, and enrollment threshold for different majors. |
| 3 |
You would like to take part in CAD exam, and need to know the scope of the exam, the time and place for the exam, requirements for taking part in the exam, and the fee. So, you need to do a search for gathering the information and also other similar exams for comparison. |
| 4 |
You are planning for a travel from Tianjin to Ganshu. Please search for the following places: Dunhuang Caves, Taer Temple, Sun-Moon Mountain, and Qinhai Lake. You need to locate the exact address of these places, learn the features of these places, search for flight and bus information, and order the hotels online. |
| 5 |
You are preparing for the application of “National Undergraduate Innovative Experiment Plan.” You need to know related studies on personalization of information retrieval. Please search for papers related to task complexity and personalization of IR in the journal “Library and Information”, and list all English references in the papers you located. |
| 6 |
You are preparing for an examination on computer science. You need to know information about the types of modes in which the computer is started, and make a contrast between a safe mode and a VGA-driven mode, figuring out both distinctions and relations of the two. Please do a search to collect related information. |
|
|
|
Otterbacher, J., Hemphill, L., & Dekker, E. (2011). Helpful to you is useful to me: The use and interpretation of social voting. ASIST Proceedings, n.p.
|
| Task type: |
Simulated search task |
| Task type definition: |
No definition was provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task description for IMDb.com: A friend of yours, who is not so confident at searching for information online, is a movie buff and in particular, loves Alfred Hitchcock thrillers. She has asked for your help in organizing a Hitchcock film festival at your university. As a first step, she has put together a list of candidate films to be considered. Vertigo is on her list and she has asked you to find out, in general, what people have said about it on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). |
| 2 |
Task description for Amazon.com: A friend of yours, who is not so confident at searching for information online, has asked for your help in collecting information about a product of interest to him. Specifically, he is considering purchasing a digital camera with an optical zoom. As he received a gift certificate for Amazon.com, he plans to purchase a camera available there. One candidate model in his price range is the Panasonic DMC ZS3. He has asked you to help him by learning what other consumers think in general about this camera, using the relevant product review forum at Amazon.com. |
|
|
|
Wen, L., Ruthven, I., & Borlund, P. (2006). The effects of topic familiarity on online search behavior and use of relevance criteria. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006, Volume 3936/2006, 456-459.
|
| Task type: |
Search of a familiar topic |
| Task type definition: |
N/A
The author made an assumption: "The first task, given to all participants, asked the participants to find information on the topic of ‘multimedia information retrieval’. As all participants took part in a compulsory course in Information Retrieval as part of their degree course, this was a topic with which we expected them to be familiar." Page 457 |
| Task type: |
Search of a non-familiar topic |
| Task type definition: |
N/A
"Participants were asked at the start of the study which of three domains (psychology, history, or architecture) was the least familiar to them and they were then given a search task based on that topic." |
|
|
Toms, E., Freund, L., Kopak, R., & Bartlett, J.C. (2003). The effect of task domain on search. Proceedings of CASCON '03: Conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research, 303-312.
|
| Task type: |
Fully specified search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why. |
| 2 |
Find a website likely to contain reliable information on the effect of second-hand smoke. |
| 3 |
Get two price quotes for a new digital camera (3 or more megapixels and 2x or more zoom). |
| 4 |
Find two websites that allow people to buy soy milk online. |
| 5 |
I want to visit Antarctica. Find a website with information on organized tours/trips there. |
| 6 |
Identify three interesting things to do during a weekend in Kyoto, Japan. |
| 7 |
Find three articles that a high school student could use in writing a report on the Titannic |
| 8 |
Tell me the name of a website where I can find material on global warming. |
|
| Task type: |
Partially specified search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
List two of the generally recommended treatments for _____. |
| 2 |
Identify two pros or cons of taking large doses of _____. |
| 3 |
Name three features to consider in buying a(n) _____. |
| 4 |
Find two websites that will let me buy a(n) _____ online. |
| 5 |
Identify three interesting places to visit in _____. |
| 6 |
I’d like to go on a sailing vacation in _____, but I don’t know how to sail. Tell me where can I get some information about organized sailing cruises in that area. |
| 7 |
Find three different information sources that may be useful to a high school student in writing a biography of _____. |
| 8 |
Locate a site with lots of information for a high school report on the history of _____. |
|
|
|
Clarke, C. L. A., Agichtein, E., Dumais, S. & White, R. W. (2007). The influence of caption features on clickthrough patterns in web search. In Proceedings SIGIR 2007, 135-142.
|
|
Buscher, G., Dumais, S. and Cutrell, E. (2010). The good, the bad, and the random: An eye-tracking study of ad quality in Web search. In Proceedings of SIGIR.
|
| Task type: |
Informational |
| Task type definition: |
None given |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How much optical zoom does the compact digital camera Sony Cyber-Shot W230 have? |
| 2 |
How many guest rooms does the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas have? |
| 3 |
What are some side-effects of Ibuprofen? |
|
| Task type: |
Navigational |
| Task type definition: |
None given |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the special offers page for Southwest Airlines. |
| 2 |
Find the official Web site of the Venetian casino in Las Vegas. |
| 3 |
Go to NikeStore on the official Nike homepage. |
|
|
|
Lopatovska, I. (2009). Searching for good mood: Examining relationships between search task and mood. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 46(1), 1-13.
|
| Task type: |
Low complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
"a task that provided subjects with more information on what needs to be found" (p. 4) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been complaining that he finds it difficult to get accepted due to the rising numbers of students. You were unsure if his assessment was correct so you have decided to find out how the size of the student enrollment changed over the last 5 years and how it is expected to change in the coming 5 years." (p. 4) |
|
| Task type: |
High complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
"a vaguely formulated task requiring information from multiple sources" (p. 4) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your friend has just finished reading a copy of a national newspaper in which there is an article about Internet music piracy. The article stresses how this is a global problem and affects compact disc sales worldwide. Unaware of the major effects you decide to find out how and why music piracy influences the global music market." (p. 4-5) |
|
|
|
Hersh, W., Sacherek, L., Olson, D. Observations of Searchers: OHSU TREC 2001 Interactive Track. The Tenth Text REtrieval Conference, TREC 2010. Retrieved on November 30, 2010 from http://trec.nist.gov/pubs/trec10/papers/Hersh.pdf
|
| Task type: |
fully-specified |
| Task type definition: |
user given the complete task (p. 2) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why." (p. 4) |
| 2 |
"Find a website likely to contain reliable information on the effect of second-hand smoke." (p. 4) |
| 3 |
"Get two price quotes for a new digital camera (3 or more megapixels and 2x or more zoom)." (p. 4) |
| 4 |
"Find two websites that allow people to buy soy milk online." (p. 4) |
| 5 |
"I want to visit Antarctica. Find a website with information on organized tours/trips there." (p. 4) |
| 6 |
"Identify three interesting things to do during a weekend in Kyoto, Japan." (p. 4) |
| 7 |
"Find three articles that a high school student could use in writing a report on the Titanic." (p. 4) |
| 8 |
"Tell me the name of a website where I can find material on global warming." (p. 4) |
|
| Task type: |
partially-specified |
| Task type definition: |
the user would decide part of the task (p. 2) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"List two of the generally recommended treatments for _____." (p. 4) |
| 2 |
"Identify two pros or cons of taking large doses of _____." (p. 4) |
| 3 |
"Name three features to consider in buying a(n) _____." (p. 4) |
| 4 |
"Find two websites that will let me buy a(n) _____ online." (p. 4) |
| 5 |
"Identify three interesting places to visit in _____." (p. 4) |
| 6 |
"I'd like to go on a sailing vacation in _____, but I don't know how to sail. Tell me where can I get some information about organized sailing cruises in that area." (p. 4) |
| 7 |
"Find three different information sources that may be useful to a high school student in writing a biography of ________." (p. 4) |
| 8 |
"Locate a site with lots of information for a high school report on the history of _____." (p. 4) |
|
|
|
Craswell, N., Hawking, D., Wilkinson, R., & Wu, M. TREC10 Web and Interactive Tracks at CSIRO. The Tenth Text REtrieval Conference, TREC 2001. (pp. 151-158). Retrieved on November 30, 2010 from http://trec.nist.gov/pubs/trec10/papers/csiro-trec-2001.pdf
|
| Task type: |
Searching for a single document |
| Task type definition: |
"the information need can be satisfied by a single web document" (p. 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why." (p. 2) |
| 2 |
"Find a website likely to contain reliable information on the effect of second-hand smoke." (p. 2) |
| 3 |
"Find a website where I can find material on global warming." (p. 2) |
| 4 |
"I want to visit Antarctica. Find a website with information on organized tours/trips there." (p. 2) |
|
| Task type: |
Searching for a collection of documents |
| Task type definition: |
"the information need can be satisfied by a set of web documents" (p. 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Find three articles that a high school student could use in writing a report on the Titanic." (p. 2) |
| 2 |
"Find three different information resources that may be useful to a high school student in writing a biography of Sr. Ernest Shackleton." (p. 2) |
| 3 |
"Identify three interesting places to visit in Perth." (p. 3) |
| 4 |
"Find two websites that will let me buy a teddy bear online." (p. 3) |
|
|
|
Hersh, W., Over, P. (2001). TREC-2001 Interactive Report. The Tenth Text REtrieval Conference, pp. 38-41.
|
| Task type: |
Fully specified [search] tasks |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why. |
| 2 |
Find a website likely to contain reliable information on the effect of second-hand smoke. |
| 3 |
Get two price quotes for a new digital camera (3 or more megapixels and 2x or more zoom). |
| 4 |
Find two websites that allow people to buy soy milk online. |
| 5 |
I want to visit Antarctica. Find a website with information on organized tours/trips there. |
| 6 |
Identify three interesting things to do during a weekend in Kyoto, Japan. |
| 7 |
Find three articles that a high school student could use in writing a report on the Titannic |
| 8 |
Tell me the name of a website where I can find material on global warming. |
|
| Task type: |
Partially specified [search] tasks |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
List two of the generally recommended treatments for _____. |
| 2 |
Identify two pros or cons of taking large doses of _____. |
| 3 |
Name three features to consider in buying a(n) _____. |
| 4 |
Find two websites that will let me buy a(n) _____ online. |
| 5 |
Identify three interesting places to visit in _____. |
| 6 |
I’d like to go on a sailing vacation in _____, but I don’t know how to sail. Tell me where can I get some information about organized sailing cruises in that area. |
| 7 |
Find three different information sources that may be useful to a high school student in writing a biography of ________. |
| 8 |
Locate a site with lots of information for a high school report on the history of _____. |
|
|
|
Elsweiler, D., Baillie, M., & Ruthven, I. (2008). Exploring memory in email refinding. ACM Transactions on Information Systems. 26(4), Article 21.
|
| Task type: |
Lookup |
| Task type definition: |
...involve finding specific information... |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A1: You have forgotten the pin code for the laboratory door. Find the pin code. (From online appendix) |
| 2 |
A2: You would like to order a free software from Microsoft through the University scheme. You need the appropriate URL to do this. Find the URL in your emails. (from online appendix) |
| 3 |
A3: A friend has spotted you filling in the diary form from the task recording experiment and asks what you are doing. You explain. She asks how long you have been recording tasks. When did you start recording tasks for this experiment? (from online appendix) |
| 4 |
A4: You are completing a laboratory exercise for the Internet Programming class that involves using a MySQL database. What is your departmental Database username?
(from online appendix) |
| 5 |
A5: Which member of staff gave the seminar about the events at Mobile HCI this year? (from online appendix)
|
| 6 |
A6: You are completing an essay for the IR class and you cannot remember how to correctly reference a paper. Name a referencing style and explain its key features. (from online appendix) |
| 7 |
A1: You have forgotten the pin code for the laboratory door. Find the pin code. (from online appendix) |
| 8 |
A2: You would like to order a free software from Microsoft through the University scheme. You need the appropriate URL to do this. Find the URL in your emails. (from online appendix) |
| 9 |
A3: A friend has spotted you filling in the diary form from the task recording experiment and asks what you are doing. You explain. She asks how long you have been recording tasks. When did you start recording tasks for this experiment? (from online appendix)
|
| 10 |
A4: You are completing a laboratory exercise for the Database class that involves creating and modifying an Oracle database. What is your departmental Database username? (from online appendix) |
| 11 |
A6: When was the last time System support emailed you and what was the email about? (from online appendix) |
| 12 |
A7: You urgently need to talk with Ian Ruthven. What is his telephone number? (from online appendix) |
| 13 |
A1: When was the pin code for the labs changed? (from online appendix) |
| 14 |
A8: What was the topic of discussion at your first research group meeting? (from online appendix) |
| 15 |
A6: When was the last time System support emailed you and what was the email about? (from online appendix) |
| 16 |
A9: Where was mobileHCI held last year? (from online appendix) |
|
| Task type: |
Item tasks |
| Task type definition: |
...where a single email [item] is required... |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
B1: You are taking part in the task recording study again and you want to record a task, but you cannot remember the link to the diary page. Find the email with the information. (from online appendix) |
| 2 |
B2: Find the most recent email that you have received that has java source code as an attachment. (from online appendix) |
| 3 |
B3: Find an email with details of the class representatives. (from online appendix) |
| 4 |
B4: Find an email reminding you about this experiment appointment. (from online appendix) |
| 5 |
B1: You are taking part in the task recording study again and you want to record a task, but you cannot remember the link to the diary page. Find the email with the information. (from online appendix) |
| 6 |
B2: Find the most recent email that you have received that has java source
code as an attachment. (from online appendix) |
| 7 |
B3: Find an email with details of the student representatives for your year. (from online appendix) |
| 8 |
B4: Find the email reminding you about this experiment appointment. (from online appendix) |
| 9 |
B5: Find the electronic receipt for your first assignment hand-in using the electronic submission system. (from online appendix) |
| 10 |
B6: Find the last email a group member sent you about the Boston subway problem. (from online appendix) |
| 11 |
B7: Find an email which provides information about the Euan Minto prize. (from online appendix) |
| 12 |
B8: Find the email about the most recent Researcher’s Digest. (from online appendix) |
| 13 |
B9: Find the email with the Christmas lunch details last year. (from online appendix) |
| 14 |
B10: Find the email about your last talk to researcher’s digest. (from online appendix) |
|
| Task type: |
Multi-item tasks |
| Task type definition: |
...where information needs to be recovered from multiple emails... |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
C1: You would like to file all of your emails relating to the Internet programming class. Find all of the emails that you would like to file. (from online appendix) |
| 2 |
C2: Now that this experiment is finished you want to delete all of the emails associated with the experiment. Find them all to delete them. (from online appendix) |
| 3 |
C3: You would like to file all of your emails relating to the Internet programming class. Find all of the emails that you would like to file. (from online appendix) |
| 4 |
C1: You would like to file all of your emails relating to the Internet programming class. Find all of the emails that you would like to file. (from online appendix)
|
| 5 |
C2: Now that this experiment is finished you want to delete all of the emails associated with the experiment. Find them all to delete them (from online appendix) |
| 6 |
C3: You would like to file all of your emails relating to the Group project class.
Find all of the emails that you would like to file. (from online appendix) |
| 7 |
C4: You are starting to think about employment after your university course has finished andwant to get an idea of the companies who might be recruiting. Find any email in your inbox to do with job opportunities, placements or recruitment. (from online appendix) |
| 8 |
C8: You want to file all of the emails about your research group into one folder. Find the messages that you would want to file. (from online appendix) |
| 9 |
C9: Of the recent talks and lectures in the department, which did you find the most interesting and why? (from online appendix) |
| 10 |
C10: Each year the CIS department gives a talk to school children at Christmas time. Which staff members have given the talk in recent years? (from online appendix) |
| 11 |
C11: Which social events have been organised in the department in the recent past? (from online appendix) |
|
|
|
Ceaparu, I., & Shneiderman, B. (2004). Finding governmental statistical data on the Web: A study of categorically organized links for the FedStats topics page. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 55(11), 1008-1015.
|
| Task type: |
Construct an understanding |
| Task type definition: |
"The question as well as the answer is very elaborate and the source of information to be searched is not clear from the context." (p.1009) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
I’m a social activist in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, area and have become increasingly concerned about urban sprawl and the loss of rural areas for both farming and recreation. I need statistics to support my claim that significant differences occur when urban development occurs in rural and/or farming areas. |
|
| Task type: |
Search for specific data |
| Task type definition: |
"The user only needs to locate information." (p.1009) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
I would like to open a grocery store specializing in organic products in the greater Seattle metropolitan area. What are the trends in production and consumption of organic food products? Would the Seattle area be a good place to locate? |
|
| Task type: |
Comparative search |
| Task type definition: |
"The user has to look for information regarding an interaction between two phenomena." (p.1009) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
I’m contemplating a move from Seattle to Bozeman, MT. How do they compare? |
|
|
|
Elsweiler, D. and Ruthven, I. (2007). Towards task-based personal information management evaluations. Proceedings of the 30th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval, pp. 23 - 30.
|
| Task type: |
Lookup tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Lookup tasks involve searching for specific information from within a resource, for example an email or a web page, where the resource may or may not be known. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Looking for the course code for a class - it’s used in a script that is run to set up a practical. I’d previously obtained this about 3 weeks ago from our website. |
| 2 |
I am trying to determine the date by which I step down as an External Examiner. This is in an email somewhere |
| 3 |
Looking for description of log format from system R developed for student project. I think he sent me in it an email. |
|
| Task type: |
Item tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Item tasks involve looking for a particular email or web page, perhaps to pass on to someone else or when the entire contents are needed to complete the task. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Looking for SIGIR 2002 paper to give to another student |
| 2 |
Find the receipt of an online airline purchase required to claim expenses |
| 3 |
I need the peer evaluation forms for the MIA class E sent me them by email |
|
| Task type: |
Multi-item tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Multi-item tasks were tasks that required information that was contained within numerous web pages or email messages. Often these tasks required the user to process or collate the information in order to solve the task. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Looking for obituaries and other material on the novelist John Fowles, who died at the weekend. Accessed the online Guradian and IMES |
| 2 |
Trying to find details on Piccolo graphics framework. Remind myself of what it is and what it does. Looking to build a GUI within Eclipse |
| 3 |
I am trying to file my emails regarding IPM and I am looking for any emails from or about this journal |
|
|
|
Fachry, K. N., Kamps, J. Zhang, J. (2008). Access to archival material in context. Proceedings of the second international symposium on Information interaction in context, pp. 102-109.
|
| Task type: |
Open-ended |
| Task type definition: |
...required the subjects to navigate through more than a single finding aid in order to be answered, and had different sub topics. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
As a student in Amsterdam, you are interested in the history of the local student societies. You decide to do research about this topic, with the purpose of writing an article for the student society’s magazine. For example, you want to know more about which societies there were, when these were founded, for which students these societies were accessible.
Using the digital inventory of the IISG, you want to check out which archives contain interesting pieces for your research. Depending on these findings, you assess whether a visit to the IISG for your research is worthwhile. |
|
|
|
Papaeconomou, C.; Zijlema, A.; Ingwersen, P. (2008). Searchers' relevance judgments and criteria in evaluating web pages in a learning style perspective. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 348 archive. Proceedings of the second international symposium on Information interaction in context table of contents. London, United Kingdom. 2008
|
| Task type: |
simulative work task situations |
| Task type definition: |
"a cognitive state, which creates an information need that has to be satisfied so that the user is able to deal with the situation and move on. The realism by using the situation comes from the involvement of the tests person who, based on the work task assigned, develops his/her own individual and subjective information need. The participants then dynamically assessed relevance of the retrieved objects, in relation to their own interpretation of the simulated work task, as in real life" (p. 125) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Beijing is hosting in 2008 (8th-24th August) the Olympic Games. A friend of yours, who is a big fan of the Olympic Games, wants to attend the events and asks you to join in this trip. You find this invitation interesting. You are not a big fan of the games but you always wanted to visit China, therefore you want to find information about the sightseeing in the city and the activities that the Chinese will offer during the games. Find for instance places you could visit, activities you could do in relation to the Chinese culture or in the spirit of the games." (p. 125) |
| 2 |
"Last month a friend of yours watched the live show of Riverdance performed by traditional Irish step dancers and he thought that is was amazing. You had never heard about it before and you wonder what it is and what the origins of this dance are." (p. 125) |
|
|
|
Yuan, W. (1997). End-User Searching Behavior in Information Retrieval: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Vol.48(3), pp. 218-234.
|
| Task type: |
Search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Retrieve cases dealing with malpractice suits against doctors. Use the XORP database. |
| 2 |
Search the ORP database for cases dealing with shop lifting in department stores. |
| 3 |
Search the ORP database for information on length of sentencing of a person charged with trafficking in marijuana. |
| 4 |
Search the SCR database for cases dealing with damages for discrimination in areas other than sex discrimination. |
| 5 |
Find cases in the ORP database dealing with aboriginal land claims. |
| 6 |
Find a case from the ORP database relating to a labor dispute involving postal workers. |
| 7 |
Find all cases in the WWR database dealing with professional misconduct of lawyers in Manitoba. |
| 8 |
Search the ORP database to retrieve cases dealing with retail stores opening for business on Sundays in the last 3 years. Display only the style-of-cause, citation, and court / judge/date segments. |
| 9 |
Retrieve information about the Ontario laws regarding wearing seat belts when driving a motor vehicle in Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act. Use the SO database. |
| 10 |
Conduct a search on the DRS database to determine if the decision R. v. Upston was appealed. |
| 11 |
Find cases in the ORP database which consider M’Alister (Donoghue) v. Stevenson in the last three years. |
| 12 |
In the APJ database, locate all cases involving fishing by foreign fishing vessels in Canadian fisheries waters. Then, locate only Newfoundland cases. |
| 13 |
Search the BCJ database for cases involving negligence by insurance agents in British Columbia. Then, conduct a search on the same topic in the AJ database for Alberta cases. |
| 14 |
Use the ORP database to retrieve cases which consider Ontario’s Retail Business Holidays Act. |
| 15 |
Find a case from the ORP database relating to a labor dispute involving postal workers. |
| 16 |
Find all cases in the WWR database dealing with professional misconduct of lawyers in Manitoba. |
| 17 |
Search the ORP database to retrieve cases dealing with retail stores opening for business on Sundays in the last 3 years. Display only the style-of-cause, citation, and court / judge/date segments. |
| 18 |
Retrieve information about the Ontario laws regarding wearing seat belts when driving a motor vehicle in Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act. Use the SO database. |
| 19 |
Search the BCJ database for cases involving negligence by insurance agents in British Columbia. Then, conduct a search on the same topic in the AJ database for Alberta cases. |
|
|
|
Rowley, J. (2000). Product Search in E-Shopping: A Review and Research Propositions. Journal of Consumer Marketing Vol. 17(1), pp. 20-35
|
| Task type: |
Browsing |
| Task type definition: |
"almost aimless or general browsing, over the Web and through other sources (such as magazines) for ``something interesting''. pp. 23 |
| Task type: |
Directed searching |
| Task type definition: |
"locate a specific item of information" pp. 23 |
|
|
Nadkarni, S., and Gupta, R. (2004). Perceived Website Complexity, Telepresence and User Attitudes: The Moderating Role of Online User Tasks. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Conference, New Orleans, August 2004, pp. A1-A6.
|
| Task type: |
goal-oriented task |
| Task type definition: |
"comprised of a searching activity that involved finding useful information" (p. A5) |
| Task type: |
experiential task |
| Task type definition: |
"the experiential activity was mainly entertaining" (p. A5) |
|
|
Rodden, K., Basalaj, W., Sinclair, D., & Wood, K. (2001). Does organisation by similarity assist image browsing? ACM SIG CHI Proceedings, 190-197.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified; single task type |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You have been asked to choose photographs to illustrate a set of “destination guide” articles for a new “independent travel” World Wide Web site. Each article will be an overview of a different location, and is to appear on a separate page. The articles have not yet been written, so all you have are short summaries to indicate the general impression that each will convey. You also have 100 photographs of each location, and your task is to choose 3 of the photos (to be used together) for each article. It is entirely up to you to decide on the criteria you use to make your selections—there are no “right” answers, and you are not bound by the given summaries. |
|
|
|
Shneiderman, B. (1997). Designing information-abundant web sites: Issues and recommendations. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 47(1), 5-29.
|
| Task type: |
Specific fact-finding (known item search) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the Library of Congress call number of Future Shock (p.12) |
| 2 |
Find the phone number of Bill Clinton (p.12) |
| 3 |
Find the highest resolution LANDSAT image of College Park at noon on 13 December
1997 (p.14) |
|
| Task type: |
Extended fact-finding |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What other books are by the author of Jurassic Park? (p.14) |
| 2 |
What kinds of music is Sony publishing? (p.14) |
| 3 |
Which satellites took images of the Persian Gulf War? (p.14) |
|
| Task type: |
Open-ended browsing |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Does the Mathew Brady Civil War photo collection show the role of women? (p.14) |
| 2 |
Is there new work on voice recognition in Japan? (p.14) |
| 3 |
Is there a relationship between carbon monoxide levels and desertification? (p.14) |
|
| Task type: |
Exploration of availability |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What genealogy information is at the National Archives? (p.14) |
| 2 |
What information is there on the Grateful Dead band members? (p.14) |
| 3 |
Can NASA data sets show acid rain damage to soy crops? (p.14) |
|
|
|
Cutrell, E., Guan, Z. (2007). What Are You Looking For? An Eye-tracking Study of Information Usage in Web Search. CHI 2007 Proceedings, 407-416.
|
| Task type: |
Navigational task |
| Task type definition: |
...users are trying to find a specific Web site or homepage that they have in mind; the goal is simply to get to their destination |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the homepage of the "Pinewood" software company. |
| 2 |
Find the homepage of the World Cup 2006 soccer games. |
| 3 |
Find the homepage of Comfort Inn. |
| 4 |
Find the homepage of the National Weather Center. |
| 5 |
Find the homepage of the St. John's law school. |
| 6 |
Find the homepage of the Yahoo! People Search. |
|
| Task type: |
Informational task |
| Task type definition: |
...the goal is to acquire some kind of information irrespective of where it might be located. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find when the Titanic set sail for its only voyage and what port it
left from. |
| 2 |
Find the address for the Newark Airport. |
| 3 |
Find out how long the Las Vegas monorail is. |
| 4 |
Find out the name of the building that is Piano's most famous
work. |
| 5 |
Find out the size (in area) of the Oklahoma City Zoo. |
| 6 |
Find the contact number for the Sylvan Learning Center. |
|
|
|
Solomon, P. (1994). Children, technology, and instruction: A case study of
elementary school children using an online public access catalog
(OPAC). School Library Media Quarterly, 23(1), 43-53.
|
|
Jackson, W. J. (1982) Staff selection and training for quality online
searching. RQ, 2, 48-54.
|
| Task type: |
Online searching |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
|
|
Howard, H. (1982) Measures that Discriminate Among Online Searchers with Different Training and Experience. Online Review, 6, 315-327.
|
| Task type: |
Pre-selected searche |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Search Request A: Collective Bargaining
A graduate student in Industrial Relations has chosen as his topic for an assignment the collective bargaining of librarians. He is familiar with the principles of collec tive bargaining and its legal base generally but wants to find out what the situation is regarding librarians specifically. His interest is mainly restricted to North America. The student would like a fairly comprehensive bibliography but also wants to limit the total direct search charges to about $30.00 US. |
| 2 |
Search Request B: Innovations in libraries
A faculty member who completed her Ph.D. dissertation five years ago on the relationship between organizational structural variables and the rate of innovation in libraries would like a retrospective search in preparation for writing an article on innovation in libraries. She is particularly interested in finding out about innovations which involve new programs, services, or re-organization, and their imple mentation since approximately 1973. The innovations may occur in any type of library, media centre, learning resource centre, information centre, etc. but should not include innovations in Education per se. The user would like a fairly comprehensive bibliography but also wants to limit the total direct search charges to about $30.00 US. |
|
|
|
Tolle, J. E., Hah, S. (1985) Online search Patterns: NLM CATLINE Database. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 36(2), 82-93.
|
|
Marchionini, G., Teague, J. (1987) Elementary students' use of electronic information services: an exploratory study. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 20(2), 139-155.
|
|
Marcus, R. (1983). An experimental comparison of the effectiveness of computers and humans as search intermediaries. Journal of the American .Society for Information Science, 34, 381- 404.
|
|
Wallace, P.M. (1993). How do patrons search the online catalog when no one's looking? Transaction log analysis and implications for bibliographic instruction and system design. RQ, 33, 239-252.
|
| Task type: |
Name search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Task type: |
Subject search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
|
|
Su, L.T., Chen, H., & Dong, X. (1998). Evaluation of Web-based search
engines from the end users' perspective: A pilot study. Proceedings of
the 61st ASIS Annual Meeting, 35, October 24-29, 1998, Pittsburgh, PA (pp. 348-361), Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.
|
|
White, R., Ruthven, I., & Jose, J. (2002). Finding relevant documents using top-ranking sentences: an evaluation of two alternative schemes. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference (SIGIR 2002).
|
| Task type: |
fact search |
| Task type definition: |
"The fact search asked subjects to find a single item of information." (5) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
subjects asked to find "a named person’s current email address" (5) |
|
| Task type: |
decision search |
| Task type definition: |
"The decision search...forced subjects to make a qualitative decision on the information they retrieved." (5) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Context
You are about to depart on a short tour along the west coast
of Italy. The agenda includes a visit to the country’s capital,
Rome, during which you hope to find time to pursue your
interest in impressionist paintings. Your time in the city is
limited to only two (2) hours and as such you would like to
look for possible places to visit prior to your departure.
Task
Bearing in mind this context, your task is to find information
about the city’s best impressionist art museum." (5) |
|
| Task type: |
background search |
| Task type definition: |
"the background search asked subjects to find as much information as possible on a given topic." (5) |
|
|
Meghabghab, D. B. (1995). CD-ROM vs. online vs. Internet: search strategies and evaluation from the user's perspective. Proceedings of the 16th National Online Meeting, May 2-4, 1995, New York (pp. 295-307).
|
| Task type: |
Search problem |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
I want to find articles about teachers showing partiality to male students in public schools. |
| 2 |
I want to locate articles about information seeking behavior of students in public schools. |
| 3 |
Find articles about information seeking strategies of librarians in using online databases. |
| 4 |
An instructor wants to find information about SAT scores as a predictor of college success for non-traditional students. |
| 5 |
I am interested in finding out the characteristics of learners who do well in distance education courses and those who do not. My irrst interest is the use of two-way interactive videoconferencing. Some learner characteristics that may be related to doing well and enjoying this technology are field-dependence/independence; tolerance for ambiguity, and ability to be flexible are also variables. |
| 6 |
"I would like to find articles and/ or reports concerning technostress in libraries, including media centers. I am mainly interested in the physical and psychological aspects of it. Also ergonomic design of workstations and strategies for coping with it. |
| 7 |
I would like to find information about the kind of reading materials that should be in high school media centers to support multicultural programs. |
| 8 |
I would like to find information about how to teach online searching to college students. |
| 9 |
I am interested in finding out the characteristics of learners who do well in distance education courses and those who do not. My first interest is the use of two-way interactive videoconferencing. Some learner characteristics that may be related to doing well and enjoying this technology are field-dependence/ independence; tolerance for ambignity, and ability to be flexible are also variables. |
| 10 |
I am interested in finding out the characteristics of learners who do well in distance education courses and those who do not. My first interest is the use of two-way interactive videoconferencing. Some learner characteristics that may be related to doing well and enjoying this technology are field-dependence/ independence; tolerance for ambignity, and ability to be flexible are also variables. |
| 11 |
I would like to f'md articles and/or reports concerning technostress in libraries, including media centers. I am mainly interested in the physical and psychological aspects of it. Also ergonomic design of workstations and strategies for coping with it. |
| 12 |
I am interested in finding out the characteristics of learners who do well in distance education courses and those who do not. My first interest is the use of two-way interactive videoconferencing. Some learner characteristics that may be related to doing well and enjoying this technology are field-dependence/independence; tolerance for ambignity, and ability to be flexible are also variables. |
| 13 |
I would like to f'md articles discussing how the Internet can be used by media specialists in reference services and by teachers in the classroom. |
| 14 |
I would like to find articles and/or reports concerning technostress in libraries, including media centers. I am mainly interested in the physical and psychological aspects of it. Also ergonomic design of workstations and strategies for coping with it. |
|
|
|
Lowry, G. R. (1982). Improving the Initial Performance of Novice Search Intermediaries. Proceedings of the 45th ASIS Annual Meeting (vol. 19, pp. 173-175).
|
|
Dumais, S. T., & Schmitt, D. G. (1991). Iterative searching in an online database. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting (pp. 398-402).
|
| Task type: |
General topic searches |
| Task type definition: |
"They were then given ten topical search problems that could be answered using the news database, and asked to find as many articles as they could that were relevant to each question. The questions were general topical searches" (4) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find articles about the "Background of the new prime minister of Great Britain" |
| 2 |
find articles about the "Leaders who figure in discussions of the future of the West German chancellorship" |
|
|
|
Bellardo, T. (1984). Some Attributes of Online Search Intermediaries
that Relate to Search Outcome. Ph.D. dissertation. Philadelphia, PA: Drexel University.
|
| Task type: |
Search question |
| Task type definition: |
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"An undergraduate student who has to write a 10-page class paper
wants highly relevant citations on the use of school busing to achieve
racial integration. The student wants a good, moderate-sized
bibliography, without a lot of irrelevant citations if possible." (p.138) |
| 2 |
"A graduate student is preparing a comprehensive literature review
and wants all the references available on the topic of drug abuse,
including alcohol, among students of elementary and secondary schools.
The student would like as comprehensive a search as possible." (p.138) |
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
|
|
|
White, R; Ruthven, I; Jose, JM. (2001). Web document summarisation: a task-oriented evaluation. 12th Interdisciplinary Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, Proceedings: 951-955. edited by Tjoa, AM; Wagner, RR. presented at 12th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA) in Munich, Germany, Sep 03-07, 2001.
|
| Task type: |
Search for a fact |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Finding a named person’s current e-mail address |
|
| Task type: |
Search for a number of items |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Finding five hotels in Paris, France that offer an online booking service |
|
| Task type: |
Decision search |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Finding information about the ’best’ impressionist art museum in Rome, Italy |
|
| Task type: |
Background search |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Finding information about dust allergies in the workplace. |
|
|
|
Gwizdka, J., & Spence, I. (2007). Implicit measures of lostness and success in Web navigation. Interacting with Computers, 19(3), 357-369.
|
| Task type: |
factual information task |
| Task type definition: |
"A factual task is defined as an information
finding task where the user seeks a specific piece of data
(e.g., the name of a person or an organization, product
information, a numerical value; a date; an address; etc.)." (361) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
‘‘Find a listing of addresses for passport offices in Ontario’’ (Government of Canada site). |
| 2 |
What is the history of the West Nile virus? |
| 3 |
Find a listing of documents on the topic of Dealing With Abuse |
| 4 |
Why are foods irradiated? Find the page that describes this process |
| 5 |
Find a short description of Ottawa that lists population and area covered, among other information |
| 6 |
Find the page that graphs energy consumption in Canada |
| 7 |
Find a listing of ‘‘Travel Health Advisories’’ listed by date |
| 8 |
Find a page that describes how to deal with stress for women |
| 9 |
Find a brief (two sentences) listing of Canadian health expenditures for 2000–2001 |
| 10 |
Find the page that discusses ‘‘Maternity and Newborn Care’’. This page includes a chapter listings for a book |
| 11 |
Find the page that defines and describes Smog |
| 12 |
Find the official web-page for Saskatchewan that lists that province’s population |
| 13 |
Find a brief (two sentences) listing of Canadian health expenditures for 2000–2001 |
| 14 |
Find the page that describes precautions for ‘‘Minimizing your risk’’ of contracting Hepatitis C |
| 15 |
Find the page that lists the key health care issues |
|
|
|
White, RW., Jose, JM., & Ruthven, I. 2005. Using top-ranking sentences for facilitate effective information access. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 56(10): 1113-1125.
|
| Task type: |
fact search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
finding a named person’s current e-mail address (1117) |
|
| Task type: |
decision search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
choosing the best impressionist art museum (1117) |
|
| Task type: |
background search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
finding information on dust allergies (1117) |
|
|
|
Toms, EG., O'Brien, HL., Kopak, R., & Freund, L. 2005. Searching for relevance in the relevance of search. In Crestini, F., & Ruthven, I. (Eds.) Context: Nature, Impact, and Role, Proceedings 3507: 59-78. Presented at 5th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Sciences (CoLIS 2005). Glasgow, Scotland.
|
| Task type: |
tasks specified by the Track |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Tell me three categories of people who should or should not get a flu shot and why. (63) |
|
| Task type: |
personalized tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Name three features to consider in buying a(n) [name of product] (63) |
| 2 |
List two of the generally recommended treatments for [name of disease or condition]. (63) |
|
|
|
Xu, Y.,& Yin, H. (2008). Novelty and topicality in interactive information retrieval. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(2), 201-215.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Assume you are taking a health education class and the final examination which accounts for 50% of the total grade is to search and study online documents on “mobile phone radiation and health”. The relevance of a document depends on how much it addresses the following issues: Does the use of the mobile phone pose radiation threats to the user’s health? Why is there such or no such radiation threat to health? What is the proper way to use the mobile phone to protect your health from radiation? You need to search for documents with the provided search engine. After a list of documents (60 documents in six pages) is returned by the search engine, please read each document in order, and evaluate the document in terms of whether it is on-topic, novel (provides new knowledge) to you, and overall useful. You will also be asked to take a short online examination on the topic of “mobile phone radiation and health” after the search. (207) |
|
|
|
Spink, A; Dee, C. 2007. Cognitive shifts related to interactive information retrieval. Online Information Review 31(6):845-860.
|
| Task type: |
search information problems |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
(1) Study participant 1. Knee replacement.
(2) Study participant 2. Brain chemical imbalance.
(3) Study participant 3. Basal cell carcinoma.
(4) Study participant 4. Fibromyalga.
(5) Study participant 5. Prostate cancer.
(6) Study participant 6. Glaucoma.
(7) Study participant 7. Multiple sclerosis.
(8) Study participant 8. Glomerular Disease.
(9) Study participant 9. Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease. |
|
|
|
Xu, Y., & Wang, D. 2008. Order effect in relevance judgment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 59(8): 1264-1275.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Assume you are taking a health education course. You will be asked to search online for documents about “the relationship between mobile phone radiation and health.” Documents addressing the following questions are considered relevant: Does use of mobile phones pose radiation threats to users’ health? Why are there such or no such radiation threats to health? What is the proper way to use a mobile phone to protect your health from radiation? You will take an online quiz (10 questions) based on the knowledge you learned in the search process. Those who
score well (> or = 80) will be qualified for a lottery to win $50. If nobody scores well, the person with the highest score will get the prize. |
|
|
|
Kim, J. (2008). Task as a context of information seeking: An investigation of daily life tasks on the web. LIBRI 58(3): 172-181.
|
| Task type: |
Factual Task |
| Task type definition: |
The factual
task is a closed task which has a defi nite answer |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Factual task: You plan to visit San Francisco next week.
One of your friends who has been there suggests that
you visit the oldest seafood restaurant in town. You
want to know the name of the restaurant. |
|
| Task type: |
Interpretive Task |
| Task type definition: |
"the interpretive task is a rather open-ended but goal-oriented task which requires a paragraph(s) or passage(s) for its answer" (174) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Interpretive task: Your cousin, a typical teenage girl,
said that one of her friends had started to smoke. You
fear your cousin might begin smoking in the near future
and decide to educate her, so you have to fi nd some information
on what could happen if she starts smoking. |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory Task |
| Task type definition: |
"the exploratory task is a vaguely structured as well as completely
open-ended task, and its outcome is a collection of data." (174) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Exploratory task: You have recently moved to Boston
and you are interested in buying a home. You have
heard that most homes built before 1978 have some
lead paint, but that their paint status is often reported
as ”unknown.” You think you should learn about lead
paint and housing. The Web seems like a good place to
locate this information. |
|
|
|
Kim, J. (2009). Describing and Predicting Information-Seeking Behavior on the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60(4): 679-693.
|
| Task type: |
Factual task |
| Task type definition: |
"A factual task is a "asking a fact" task, such as naming, identifying, or listing. Its inherent need is verificative and structured as a closed question. It generally has a definite answer, which is explicitly represented in the text so it has a closed-structure. The expected outcome for the factual task is often a named entity, represented as noun phrases, such as the name, time,
location, or attribute of an object, as well as a qualifying short phrase or sentence, which is represented as identification, a definition, clarification, a list, or a label." (p. 683) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You plan to visit San Francisco next week. One of your friends who has been there suggests that you visit the restaurant that is known as the oldest seafood restaurant in town.You want to know the name of the restaurant." (p. 684) |
|
| Task type: |
Interpretive task |
| Task type definition: |
"An interpretive task is a "thinking/understanding and searching" task, that is, a task to configure an answer rather than simply and concisely locate one. It is rather open-ended but more focused and goal-oriented than an exploratory task. It may have more than one answer that can be supported with evidence from the text. The expected outcome for the interpretive task is a paragraph(s) or passage(s) to summarize, describe, explain, interpret, infer, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, or discuss, etc." (p. 683) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your cousin, who is a typical teenage girl, said that one of her friends started to smoke.You fear your cousin might begin smoking in the near future. So, you decide to educate her. Specifically, you think that you have to find some information focusing on what could happen if she starts smoking." (p. 684) |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory task |
| Task type definition: |
"An exploratory task is motivated by the searcher's desire to broaden his or her knowledge of a topic, i.e. to foster learning or investigation. As it is completely open-ended, muddled topical need, and it can be difficult to phrase and often includes multiple aspects or a number of concepts. It has a vaguely
structured information need because the information required to accomplish it cannot be determined in advance. So it follows the expanding search pattern, which follows the paths leading to new or unknown areas." (p. 683) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"You have recently moved to Boston and you are interested in buying a home.You have heard that most homes built before 1978 have some lead paint, but that their paint status is often reported as "unknown." You think you should learn about lead paint and housing. The Web seems like a good place to locate this information." (p. 684) |
|
|
|
Fu, X. 2010. Towards a model of implicit feedback for web search. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 61 (1): 30-49.
|
| Task type: |
Fact-Finding, Multi-Faceted |
| Task type definition: |
All search problems involved multiple facets and were close-ended (fact finding or known item). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Your friend visited the Kennedy Space Center recently. When he was there, he watched a movie about the Apollo Project. The video included a segment showing President Kennedy announcing the lunar landing project. Your friend vaguely remembers that President Kennedy said something like the project was undertaken not because it was easy, but because itwas difficult. Can you find the exact quote for what President Kennedy actually said and where he made the speech? |
| 2 |
Your friend is coming to visit you next week.You know she really likes Chinese cuisine. Please find a good restaurant that you can take her to dinner during her visit. (Facets involved: topic–Chinese restaurant; quality–good food; location–where the searcher lives.) |
| 3 |
Your friend visited the Kennedy Space Center recently. When he was there, he watched a movie about the Apollo Project. The video included a segment showing President Kennedy announcing the lunar landing project. Your friend vaguely remembers that President Kennedy said something like the project was undertaken not because it was easy, but because itwas difficult. Can you find the exact quote for what President Kennedy actually said and where he made the speech? (Facets involved: topic–speech, Apollo Project; person– President Kennedy; keywords–easy, difficult; question– quote, location.) |
| 4 |
Your niece was watching TV last weekend and saw a team sport like the one shown in the picture. Your niece was curious what they were doing and what they used the brush for. Can you try to find the answer to her questions? (Facets involved: topic–sport; location–on ice; tool– brush.) |
| 5 |
Your niece was watching TV last weekend and saw a team sport like the one shown in the picture. Your niece was curious what they were doing and what they used the brush for. Can you try to find the answer to her questions? (Facets involved: topic–sport; location–on ice; tool– brush.) |
| 6 |
My nephew is doing a school project on the deaf population. He wants to find out how many deaf people in the U.S. speak English and also use theAmerican Sign Language. Can you help him? (Facets involved: topic–deaf, communication, population; location–United States; question–statistics/usage/census/ percentage; keywords–American Sign Language, English, bilingual.) |
| 7 |
My neighbor has a dog. He noticed that his dog sometimes eats June bugs. He wonders if this will cause any problem to his dog. Can you look for some information to answer his question? (Facets involved: entity–dog, June bug; relationship–eat; question–harmful/hurtful/toxic.) |
| 8 |
You went to NC History Museum over the weekend and sawa picture showing a railroad spur built in Durham which ran directly into the American Tobacco Company. When you came home, however, you realized that you didn’t pay attention to the time when it was built. Can you do a search and find out that? (Facets involved: topic–railroad spur, American Tobacco Company; location–Durham; question–time.) |
| 9 |
The gas price in Chapel Hill as well as in other U.S. cities has been going up crazily since earlier this year. It is costing roughly $3 per gallon now. You are curious about the situation in European countries. Can you do a search to find out what the situation is like there? (Facets involved: topic–gas price; location–Europe; time– July 2007.) |
| 10 |
You heard that in Russia, people drink a lot of vodka. Can you find out on average how much vodka a Russian drink? (Facets involved: topic–drink, vodka; question– consumption/statistics/amount; location–Russia.) |
| 11 |
My friend John has a farm in North Central Arkansas. He is interested in knowing if he can use his farm to grow plants for the production of bio fuels. He wants to know what plants he should grow in his farm and whether there is a market to sell the plants. (Facets involved: entity–biofuel plants; topic–production, market/sell; location–North Central Arkansas.) |
| 12 |
Your neighbor has a boy who is diagnosed to have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Can you find some information on how diet/sugar affects ADHD in kids. (Facets involved: topic–ADHD; entity–kids, diet, sugar; relationship–affect.) |
|
|
|
Sushmita, S., Joho, H., & Lalmas, M. 2009. A task-based evaluation of an aggregated search interface. In Karlgren, J., Tarhio, J., & Hyyro, H. (Eds.) String Processing and Information Retrieval, Proceedings 5721, (pp. 322-333). Presented at 16th International Symposium on String Processing and Information Retrieval. Saariselka, Finland.
|
| Task type: |
non-navigational search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
European verses American football: Your friend shared her experience of her recent visit to a state in US, and mentioned about an American football match to which she was invited to watch. Having only watched European soccer in her life, she was surprised to see that American football was quite different from European football matches she had watched. She found rules and the game to be completely different from what she expected and was quite confused during the match. You decided to help her by explaining the difference between them. Your task is to collect information on American and European football, their rules, the game, their origin, etc. You may also show her some pictures of both the games, pictures of some popular sports person from both, etc. It would be nice to update her about any recent event or news about these games. |
|
|
|
Ylikoski, T. (2005). A sequence analysis of consumers' online searches. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 15(2), 181-194.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"...searching for information for an impending purchase of a camcorder. Subjects recorded visited sites, navigations and searches, considered product models, and most importantly, what kind of support the information provided in the decision in a specially designed protocol." (185) |
|
| Task type: |
active, directed search task |
| Task type definition: |
"Subjects were assigned an identical search task with the requirement of being able to choose an alternative after the search." (185) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Subjects were forced to obtain and compare attribute and price information to induce information tasks with varying levels of specificity. The task was moderately complex, and required an actual search for completion." (185) |
|
|
|
White, M.D., & Iivonen, M. (2002). Assessing level of difficulty in Web search questions. Library Quarterly, 72(2), 205-233.
|
| Task type: |
Closed/predictable source |
| Task type definition: |
"Closed questions require exact answers, often brief facts; searchers have little discretion in judging correctness or in determining alternatives... With
predictable source questions, searchers know or can guess with a high
probability of success where relevant information can be found... In this study, a question is considered to have a predictable source if a specific proper name that can be readily associated with a Web site is included in the question." (p.211) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Who is the president of the Nokia (Intel in the U.S. versin) Company in Finland (U.S.)? |
| 2 |
Who are the current members of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? |
| 3 |
What sites are on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites? |
| 4 |
According to the Bible, how old was Methuselah when he died? |
|
| Task type: |
Open/predicable source |
| Task type definition: |
"Open questions have no one exact answer; searchers applyjudgment in developing acceptable responses, sometimes incorporating or synthesizing information from multiple sources... With predictable source questions, searchers know or can guess with a high probability of success where relevant information can be found... In this study, a question is considered to have a predictable source if a specific proper name that can be readily associated with a Web site is included in the question." (p.211) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How do I apply for admission to the medical school at Harvard? |
| 2 |
Amazon Books is often mentioned as a good example of companies whose business is doing well on the Internet. What information is available on the Internet about the company's history and current status, including the kinds of services it offers to customers? |
| 3 |
What is the World Health Organization doing to stop river blindness? |
| 4 |
How is the U.S. Library of Congress resolving copyright issues in connection with its Digital Library project? |
|
| Task type: |
Closed/unpredictable source |
| Task type definition: |
"Closed questions require exact answers, often brief facts; searchers have little discretion in judging correctness or in determining alternatives... unpredictable
source questions may require some searching to find appropriate sources, if they exist... In this study, a question is considered to
have a predictable source if a specific proper name that can be readily
associated with a Web site is included in the question." (p.211) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What does the term "the China Syndrome" refer to? |
| 2 |
I am looking for a copy of the multinational treaty banning land mines that was signed shortly after Princess Diana's death, the one that the U.S. and Finland refused to sign. |
| 3 |
Diane Fossey did amazing research studying the habits of gorillas in Africa and became an advocate of maintaining their habitat. She was killed in the course of her research, supposedly by a poacher. Which person or organizations are continuing her work, if any? |
| 4 |
I need a demographic statistics that characterize Internet users -- age, gender, income level, and so on. |
|
| Task type: |
Open/unpredictable source |
| Task type definition: |
"Open questions have no one exact answer; searchers applyjudgment in developing acceptable responses, sometimes incorporating or synthesizing information from multiple sources... unpredictable source questions may require some searching to find appropriate sources, if they exist... In this study, a question is considered to have a predictable source if a specific proper name that can be readily associated with a Web site is included in the question." (p.211) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What international efforts or projects are underway to handle the Year 2000 computer crisis? |
| 2 |
What are considered to be the causes of hooliganism or fan violence at World Cup soccer games? |
| 3 |
What studies are available on the Web about people's knowledge, attitudes, fears, and opinions about virtual reality? |
| 4 |
What is the difference between the European approach and the American approach to protecting privacy on the Web? |
|
|
|
Kellar, M., Watters, C., & Shepherd, M. (2007). A field study characterizing web-based information-seeking tasks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(7), 999-1018. doi:10.1002/asi.20590
|
| Task type: |
Fact Finding |
| Task type definition: |
"Fact Finding is defined as a task in which you are looking for specific facts or pieces of information. These are usually short-lived tasks that are completed over a single session because you either find the answer or you do
not. Examples include looking for tomorrow’s weather, a
pizza-dough recipe, or printer drivers for your printer." (1005) |
| Task type: |
Information Gathering |
| Task type definition: |
Information Gathering involves
the collection of information, often from multiple sources.
This type of task can take place over a single day or may
stretch out over several days. Unlike Fact Finding, you do not
always know when you have completed the task, and there is
no one specific answer. Examples include building a bibliography
for a research paper, researching different car models
when buying a new car, or planning an upcoming vacation." (1005) |
| Task type: |
Monitoring |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Browsing |
| Task type definition: |
"Browsing is defined as a serendipitous task
where you may be visiting Web pages with no specific goal
in mind. You may allow yourself to take part for a predetermined
period of time (e.g., “I have 20 min before my meeting”).
This type of task is your classic “Web browsing,” with
no specific goal in mind other than entertainment or to “see
what’s new.” Sometimes this is done as part of a daily routine.
Examples include reading the news, your favorite
comic, or a friend’s blog." (1005) |
| Task type: |
Other |
| Task type definition: |
A final category of Other was provided to participants
in the event they encountered tasks during the study in
which they either were not sure how to categorize or which
did not fit within any of the predefined categories. Participants
also were instructed to categorize their homepage as
“Other” if they did not use it as part of task since it loads
each time the Web browser loads, and these pages were not
included in our analysis. |
| Task type: |
Transactions |
| Task type definition: |
Transactions are defined as tasks in which
you are performing an online action. Often, a username/password
is associated with the transaction. Examples include
Web-based e-mail, banking, or posting to a message board. |
|
|
Hughes, B., Wareham, J., & Joshi, I. (2010). Doctors' online information needs, cognitive search strategies, and judgments of information quality and cognitive authority: How predictive judgments introduce bias into cognitive search models. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(3), 433-452.
|
|
Holmes, J., Robins, D., Zhang, Y., & Salaba, A. (2008). An exploratory study of school-age children's use of a heterogeneous resource site. Journal of Web Librarianship, 2(2-3), 263-285.
|
| Task type: |
Open Option |
| Task type definition: |
Students were free to use the search box or browse |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find information that tells you how to identify different types of clouds (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, etc.). |
| 2 |
Where could you find battlefield maps of the Civil War? |
|
| Task type: |
Search task |
| Task type definition: |
student were directed to use the search box to complete the task |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Using the search box, find a book on the Civil War. |
|
| Task type: |
Browse Task |
| Task type definition: |
students were directed to complete a task using the hierarchical subject browse feature called “Explore a Room.” |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Using “Explore a Room,” where might you locate information about the causes of World War I? |
|
| Task type: |
Distinguishing between multiple formats and resources |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Use the search box to find information on the solar system.
◦ Circle all the books with your mouse. Is that all?
◦ Circle all the Web sites with your mouse. Is that all?
◦ Circle all the magazine articles with your mouse. Is that all? |
|
|
|
Bilal, D. (2002). Perspectives on children's navigation of the world wide web: Does the type of search task make a difference? Online Information Review, 26(2), 108-117.
|
| Task type: |
fact-based task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"age of alligators in the wild and in captivity" |
|
| Task type: |
research-based task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"locate relevant information about "the depletion of the ozone layer"" |
|
| Task type: |
self-generated tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Children were asked to choose tasks of interest to them (i.e. fully self-generated) to pursue in Yahooligans! They selected a variety of topics. Examples are: Spice Girls, Ice skating and acting, Free Willy, Ebola Virus, Poetry, Endangered species, Road Runner, Michael Jordan, Movies, Olympic Games, Law, Psychology as a career, and Horses." (111) |
|
|
|
Bartolo, L. M. and Smith, T. D. (1993). Interdisciplinary work and the information search process: A comparison of manual and online searching. College and Research Libraries, 54(4), 344-353.
|
| Task type: |
Manual search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Task type: |
Online search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
|
|
Hurt, C.D. (1983). Intermediaries, self-searching, and satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Online Meeting, Medford, N.J.: Learned Information, 231-8.
|
| Task type: |
Intermediary search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Task type: |
Self search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
|
|
Wang, P., & Tenopir, C. (1998). An exploratory study of users' interaction with World Wide Web resources: Information skills, cognitive styles, affective states, and searching behaviors. In M. E. Williams (Ed.), Nineteenth National Online Meeting Proceedings (pp. 445-454). New York: Information Today.
|
| Task type: |
Factual search |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
This summer, a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville submitted a full grant proposal to the National Science Foundation through the FastLane, the agency's new electronic proposal system. It was announced in the Research Good News. Can you fmd the news for me? |
| 2 |
Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau reports on the projections of national population. I am interested in the most current estimate for the population of the United States in 2000. |
|
|
|
Chen, B., Wang, H., Proctor, R. W., & Salvendy, G. (1997). A human-centered approach for improving WorldWide Web Browsers. Behavior Research Methods, Vol.29(2), pp. 172-179.
|
| Task type: |
specific search |
| Task type definition: |
"...search for certain, particular items of information..." pp.175 |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
(I) the First Lady's biography; (2) home page of Canada's Air Force; (3) Human-Computer Interaction '97 International Conference; (4) Lee, Tsung-Dao's (physicist and Nobel prize winner) home page; and (5) the results of the 1996 Russian presidential election. |
|
| Task type: |
nonspecific browsing |
| Task type definition: |
"...acquire information about something interesting..." pp.175 |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find items that they thought were interesting |
|
|
|
Lyons, D. J., et al. (1997). An investigation of the use of the World Wide Web for online inquiry in a science classroom (Report No.). (ERIC Document No. ED 406158).
|
| Task type: |
Exploring |
| Task type definition: |
"The purpose of exploration in on-line inquiry is to have students gain background knowledge necessary to ask good questions and then to perform searches that will help them to find appropriate sources of information about their questions. Since students might be looking at topics that are not part of their classroom curriculum, it was necessary to provide them with on-line opportunities to find information about their topics quickly and easily. " (12) |
| Task type: |
Asking Questions |
| Task type definition: |
"The purpose of exploration, as described in a previous section, is for students to gather appropriate background information to help them develop rich questions to focus their research. This step is difficult for students, as they are rarely required to ask their own questions in traditional classroom activities. We found during our first units that instead of asking open-ended questions, students too often begin by asking very restricted, close ended questions. These questions often has a single correct answer, and this answer was often numerical (such as "How many people died in Hurricane Andrew?"). The rest of their time on-line was was spent looking for a page that has the answer on it. Our goal is for students to ask questions that do not have a single correct answer, but require students to synthesize infiltration from multiple sources." (14) |
| Task type: |
Planning |
| Task type definition: |
"In an on-line inquiry learning environment, the responsibility for planning lays squarely on the shoulders of the students. Since students generally work in pairs on our projects, planning is as much a cooperative task as it is a personal one." (16) |
| Task type: |
Searching for Information |
| Task type definition: |
"If the question is the foundation of on-line inquiry, then searching is the cornerstone. The whole focus of inquiry is to allow students to pursue questions that interest them. It is impossible for a teaching or researching to anticipate every question that students might ask, so it is equally as impossible to develop on-line learning materials that provide resources for every student. This implies that students need to be allowed to conduct open searches on the web using search engines like The Open Text Index and Lycos." (17) |
| Task type: |
Assessing Information |
| Task type definition: |
"One facet of the World Wide Web is that the content is comprehensive. The wide variety of information is unparalleled in most school environments. This can be a great asset, since there is information that is unavailable to students locally, but it can also be something of a liability. Unfortunately, students often have a tendency to believe practically anything that is written. In the course of normal school activities, the authority of information providers is rarely questioned, since students are generally presented only with accepted textbooks, and with library materials that are in keeping with the library's collections policy. However, in dealing with Web-based resources the question of authority is paramount. Since almost anyone with access to a computer and in Internet account can post information on the Web, it becomes difficult for students to easily assess the quality of the information that is provided." (20) |
|
|
Sewell, W., Teitelbaum, S. (1986). Observations of End-User Online Searching Behavior over Eleven Years. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 37(4), 234-245.
|
|
Penniman, W. D. (1975). A Stochastic Process Analysis of Online User Behavior. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science, 12, 147-148.
|
| Task type: |
Index searching |
| Task type definition: |
n/a |
|
|
Mackay, J. M., & Elam. J. J. (1992). A comparative study of how experts and novices use a decision aid to solve problems in complex knowledge domains. Information Systems Research. 3(2), 150-172.
|
| Task type: |
search task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"...determine the site locations for six medical convenience care centers (24-hour emergency medical clinics) from 71 possible locations. Associated with each possible location were 12 demographic variables related to such items as population, income, age, education, and employment." (154) |
|
|
|
Wildemuth, B. M., de Bliek, R., & Friedman, C. P. (1993). Measures of searcher performance: A psychometric evaluation. Information Processing & Management. 29(5), 533-550.
|
|
Salmeron, L., Canas, J.J., & Fajardo, I. (2005). Are expert users always better searchers? Interaction of expertise and semantic grouping in hypertext search tasks. Behaviour & Information Technology, 24, 471-475.
|
| Task type: |
item search |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants performed a search task for 30 items using the
web site." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
search for "Guidelines for contributions" |
|
|
|
McKibbon, K.A., Haynes, R.B., Walker Dilks, C.J., Ramsden, M.F., Ryan, N.C., & Baker, L. (1990). How good are clinical MEDLINE searches? A comparative study of clinical end-user and librarian searches. Computers and Biomedical Research, 23, 583-593.
|
|
Maidenberg, E. (1991). Expertise in online information retrieval (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 52, 3225A.
|
| Task type: |
Easy search task |
| Task type definition: |
... formulated in a limited number of search terms and did not require any term refinement procedures or subject area knowledge." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A professor is writing a proposal to NIH and needs information on existing research in peer psychological counseling for the elderly. Please find all articles in the database on this topic. |
| 2 |
Please find all articles in the database on how managers differ from other in their personality traits. |
|
| Task type: |
Difficult search task |
| Task type definition: |
"... formulated in non-official terms requiring term-refinement process, use of Thesaurus and/or employment of subject area knowledge as well a fair understanding of indexing principles and system capabilities." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You were asked to develop a study to evaluate a mental health program and decide to use a survey questionnaire as a measurement tool. Please find all articles in the database to be included in a literature review you are writing. |
| 2 |
One of the questions on your comprehensive exam is related to possible changes in college students' attitudes towards themselves during exam periods. Please find all articles in the database related to the question. |
|
|
|
Mack, T., Manoff, M., Miller, T.J., & Smith, A.D. (2004). Designing for experts: How scholars approach an academic library Web site. Information Technology and Libraries, 23, 16-22.
|
| Task type: |
not specified |
| Task type definition: |
"...tasks meant to discover the difficulty level of locating and retrieving information resources from the library's Web site." Task difficulty was described in terms of percent of participants who completed it successfully, percent whose first click was on the “best” route to the needed result, and the percent whose first click was on any direct route to the needed result (applicable to only 4 of the 8 search tasks). (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Is The Color Purple by Alice Walker available at the UT Libraries? |
| 2 |
Is Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov available at another library in the region? |
| 3 |
Where could you request an item on interlibrary loan? |
| 4 |
In what formats does the UT Libraries receive the magazine Scientific American? |
| 5 |
Search for information on medieval universities or human cloning. |
| 6 |
Find K. Wesley Berry's article "The Lay of the Land in Cormac McCarthy's "The Orchard Keeper and Child of God" or Peter M. Cox's article "Acceleration of Global Warming Due to Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks in a Coupled Climate Model." |
| 7 |
Where can you find a definition for the word "gaff"? |
| 8 |
Where can you submit a reference question online? |
|
|
|
Laberge, J.C., & Scialfa, C.T. (2005). Predictors of Web navigation performance in a life span sample of adults. Human Factors, 47, 289-302.
|
| Task type: |
Navigation task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are the current hours of operation for Canada Olympic Park? (296) |
|
|
|
Kiestra, M., Stokmans, M., & Kamphuis, J. (1994). End-users searching the online catalogue: The influence of domain and system knowledge on search patterns. The Electronic Library, 12, 335-343.
|
| Task type: |
Domain knowledge low; instruction |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
When children mature, watching television increasingly becomes a family activity while reading becomes an individual activity. Taken into account the importance of parents in literary development, their absence will decrease children's literary development |
| 2 |
The amount of scientific research dedicated to children storytelling is negatively related to the degree to which children and parents engage in storytelling. |
| 3 |
Because literary experiences gained in a family affect the ways consecutive generations appreciate literature, one can observe family traditions when it comes to reading. External influences (school) only play a minor role. |
| 4 |
Empirical studies have revealed that watching television negatively affects reading behaviour. |
| 5 |
Children's knowledge concerning the function of written text precedes knowledge concerning the text format. |
| 6 |
When schools adopt views on 'emerging literacy', this hardly ever affects the ways in which reading proficiency is taught in these schools. |
| 7 |
A view on emerging literacy based on a selected subset of well known 'classic' books is not the right view on which to base research concerning emerging literacy. |
| 8 |
The definition of parent reading to children as a shared activity of two or more individuals with a marked beginning and ending, and involving an interaction centred round a text, is not sufficient. |
| 9 |
Parents having a functional view on reading are more inclined to leave parts of the reading education to schools than parents having a formal view on reading. |
| 10 |
The current research on language attitudes does not attach much importance to the social-psychological approach, as was common during the 1960s. |
| 11 |
The attitude as intervening variable is much more important within the positivist/behaviouristic approach than within a mentalistic model. |
| 12 |
On both ends of a semantic differential, we always find two contrasting semantic adjectives. |
| 13 |
In the social comparison theories, convergence will only take place if the costs made by a person speaking counterbalance the rewards. |
| 14 |
Integrative motivation will yield a greater chance on success than an instrumental motivation in acquiring a language. |
| 15 |
Subtractive bilinguality defines situations in which a second language is learned at the expense of losing one's mother tongue. |
| 16 |
Social categorisation and in-group favouritism are not very important in Tajfel's social identity theory |
| 17 |
A Dutchman calling other Dutchmen stingy can be regarded as an example of projective auto-stereotyping. |
| 18 |
The minimal group paradigm has clearly shown that the rewards of the in-group are minimised in order to maximise out-group differences. |
| 19 |
Foreigners, not having knowledge about the Dutch language, will associate texts spoken at low pitch as stemming from a less intelligent person than Dutch people will. |
| 20 |
The activities of the [Dutch literary foundation] can be classified as a form of art policy in a broad sense. |
| 21 |
The activities of the [Dutch art organisation] can be classified as a form of art policy in a narrow sense. |
| 22 |
Two instruments used in the policy of [art foundation] are awarding prizes and assigning scholarships |
| 23 |
According to [Dutch literary organisation] a translator of literary works should be given at least Dfl. 40 000 annually. |
| 24 |
The Royal Dutch Publishers Organisation employs activities on four different areas of literature policy. |
| 25 |
The [Dutch art organisation] is concerned with literary authors only. |
| 26 |
A contract between an author and the publisher also settles questions regarding film rights, translation rights and copyrights. |
| 27 |
Literary authors do not have the right to decide who publishes their books. |
| 28 |
The heirs of a deceased author have the right to claim the profits made by the sales of the books of this author |
| 29 |
The government is inclined to introduce a system regulating the payments made by libraries to publishers (and, eventually, to authors). |
|
| Task type: |
Domain knowledge high; no instruction |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Domain knowledge high; instruction |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Domain knowledge low; no instruction |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
|
|
Downing, R.E., Moore, J.L., & Brown, S.W. (2005). The effects and interaction of spatial visualization and domain expertise on information seeking. Computers in Human Behavior, 21, 195-209.
|
| Task type: |
General |
| Task type definition: |
The questions were formed in a way that avoided keywords and provided the
participant who knew the answer to the question a way to find information regarding the answer quicker than those who did not know the answer. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Drivers often display certain behaviors that place them, as well as others, in greater danger than would normally be expected while driving. These behaviors have become known by a certain well-known name. What is the name of this behavior? Your task is to use the FirstSearch search tool to find as many articles as fast as you can that identify (or discuss) this behavior." (200) |
| 2 |
"In addition to increasing shareholder value, businesses are accountable to certain external entities and institutions. What is the process used to determine these accountabilities? Your task is to use the FirstSearch search tool to find as many articles as fast as you can that identify (or discuss) this process." (200) |
| 3 |
"Excess cash (or cash equivalents) is considered a primary protection against temporary downturns in a firm’s operations. Therefore, a high ratio of a certain indicator would compromise a firm’s ability to overcome a downturn that lasted more than a few months. What is the indicator? Your task is to use the FirstSearch search tool to find as many articles as fast as you can that identify (or discuss) ways to reduce this ratio." (200) |
| 4 |
"The process which usually begins with glucose and ends with oxygen serving as the final electron and proton receptor is an important intracellular process. What is the overall name for this process? Your task is to use the FirstSearch search tool to find as many articles as fast as you can that identify (or discuss) this important process." (200) |
| 5 |
"Sixty to ninety-five percent (60 – 95%) of every cell is composed of this substance. Therefore, the number one threat to every terrestrial organism is what? Your task is to use the FirstSearch search tool to find as many articles as fast as you can that identify (or discuss) this threat." (200) |
|
|
|
Allen, B. (1991). Topic knowledge and online catalog search formulation. Library Quarterly, 61, 188-213.
|
| Task type: |
online catalog search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"A few minutes ago you read a short article on a topic. Suppose that you are an author, and that you have been given the assignment of writing an article on this same topic for the Daily Illini. Although the article will be general rather than technical in approach, you want to make sure that it is accurate with regard to technical details, names, dates and so on. To obtain the details you need to write this article, you want to read books and articles on the topic. You will look for books in the University Library's catalog, and to ensure that you get a complete listing of magazine and journal articles you will ask a librarian to do a search for materials on the topic. Please fill out the following form to request the library search for magazine and journal articles. Request Form-Library Search In the space provided below, describe the topic that you want to have searched. Include all details that you think would enable a librarian to complete a comprehensive literature search on this topic." (197) |
|
| Task type: |
online catalog search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Now you will do a library catalog search, using the University Library's online catalog (LCS/FBR), in order to find books that have been written on this topic. Please do this search exactly as if you were in the library." (198) |
|
|
|
Vibert, N., Ros, C., Le Bigot, L., Ramond, M., Gatefin, J., & Rouet, J.-F. (2009). Effects of domain knowledge on reference search with the PubMed database: An experimental study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 60(7), 1423-1447.
|
| Task type: |
moderately ill-structured tasks |
| Task type definition: |
The five experimental reference-seeking tasks were derived from the real examples of online bibliographic searches obtained by Vibert et al. (2007). Because the goal of two thirds of these examples was just to find “a few references” or “the most recent references” on a topic (see above), the experimental tasks were designed to be rather specific, with precise requirements, and the participants were asked to find only one or two references. Hence, all five experimental tasks were moderately ill-structured compared with more open reference search tasks. |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
« Trouver 3 articles de 1993 dont Daniel Zytnicki est coauteur.»
“Find 3 articles signed by Daniel Zytnicki in 1993.” |
| 2 |
« Trouver 1 article concernant l’épidémiologie du torticollis spasmodique chez l’homme.»
“Find 1 article dealing with the epidemiology of spasmodic torticollis in humans.” |
| 3 |
« Trouver 1 article de synthèse traitant des mécanismes d’action cellulaire de l’alcool sur les neurones du système nerveux central. »
“Find one review article dealing with the cellular mechanisms of action of alcohol on the neurons of the central nervous system.” |
| 4 |
« Trouver deux articles de 2004 portant sur les liens entre neurogénèse et maladie d’Alzheimer. »
“Find two articles published in 2004 dealing with the links between neurogenesis and Alzheimer’s disease.” |
| 5 |
« Trouver 1 article traitant des mécanismes neuronaux du pointage visuo-guidé du bras.»
“Find 1 article dealing with the neuronal mechanisms of visually-guided arm pointing.” |
| 6 |
« Trouver deux articles de synthèse décrivant des modèles animaux de dyskinésies tardives.»
“Find two review articles that describe animal models of tardive dyskinesias.” |
| 7 |
«Trouver 1 article abordant l’utilisation chez l’animal des vecteurs viraux pour injecter dans le cerveau le gène du neuropeptide Y. »
“Find 1 article that uses viral vectors to inject the gene coding for neuropeptide Y in the brain of animals.” |
|
|
|
Kim, K.-S. (1998). Information-seeking behavior on the World Wide Web: Effects of cognitive style, online database search experience and task types on search performance. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Texas at Austin.
|
| Task type: |
factual information search task (FACT) |
| Task type definition: |
"a task requiring the searching to find a piece of factual information for an item known to exist, which gives a specific answer to the question given." (45) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your graduation is coming closer. You are thinking of several options for your future, and one of them is to pursue further studies in a UT graduate school. First, you decide to learn more about the requirements for the admission. Find information on requirements for admission, for US graduates applying for UT graduate programs. When you locate the Web page listing the requirements, make a bookmark of it." (127) |
|
| Task type: |
topical information search task (TOPIC) |
| Task type definition: |
"a task requiring the participant to find pieces of information related to a given subject and regarded as useful to understanding the subject" (45) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Before your graduation, you decide to collect information on your future job and career. Find any information that you think will be useful to prepare for your future career. For example, you might want to search for information on questions like...: (1) What kind of jobs is available and/or suitable for a person with a background like yours? (2) Where can you find information on the jobs? (3) Is there any career service available on campus? (4) Is there any job fair on campus? (5) What are you supposed to do for interviews - before, during and after interviews? (6) How should you prepare your resume (curriculum vitae) and/or other documents? (7) Are there any people who are currently employed and want to share their experience?...and many others. When you located a useful resource, make a bookmark of it. And go on for the next. Find 3-5 "good" web resources. Search time is limited to 15 minute maximum." (127) |
|
|
|
Hirsh, S.G. (1996). The effect of domain knowledge on elementary school children, information retrieval behavior on an automated library catalog. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department ofLibrary and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles.
|
| Task type: |
Simple Browsing, Simple Keyword |
| Task type definition: |
“Simple-Browsing tasks were those in which the task phrasing contained match words to the bookshelf or Dewey topic headings.” (p.87)
“The size of the Keyword search results sets served as the basis for the keyword task complexity measure in this study. Searches that yielded lengthy results sets (i.e., greater than 10 headings) were considered complex-keyword topics and search which yielded 10 or fewer headings were considered simple-keyword topics.” (p.90) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Electricity is necessary for turning on light switches and for using electric sockets. Electricity allows household appliances, such as your refrigerator, to run. Your task is to look for books about electricity for writing a school paper." (202) |
| 2 |
"There is an entire world of living creatures that inhabit the ocean. One of the most fascinating creatures are the translucent jellyfish. Your task is to look for books about jellyfish for writing a school paper." (202) |
|
| Task type: |
Simple Browsing, Complex Keyword |
| Task type definition: |
“Simple-Browsing tasks were those in which the task phrasing contained match words to the bookshelf or Dewey topic headings.” (p.87)
“The size of the Keyword search results sets served as the basis for the keyword task complexity measure in this study. Searches that yielded lengthy results sets (i.e., greater than 10 headings) were considered complex-keyword topics and search which yielded 10 or fewer headings were considered simple-keyword topics.” (p.90) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Growing plants, such as vegetables and flowers, requires knowledge about many things. For example, people with gardens need to know how much water and sunlight to give their plants. Your task is to look for books about growing garden crops for writing a school paper." (201) |
| 2 |
"The process of building a home is complex. It requires many steps, including designing architectural blueprints, surveying the land, and building the frame. Your task is to look for books about building homes for writing a school paper." (202) |
|
| Task type: |
Complex Browsing, Simple Keyword |
| Task type definition: |
“Complex-Browsing tasks were those in which the task phrasing did not contain match words to the bookshelf topic headings.” (p.88)
“The size of the Keyword search results sets served as the basis for the keyword task complexity measure in this study. Searches that yielded lengthy results sets (i.e., greater than 10 headings) were considered complex-keyword topics and search which yielded 10 or fewer headings were considered simple-keyword topics.” (p.90)
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"When it is dark, you can see stars, moons, and other objects in the nighttime sky. One of the objects in the nighttime sky is Saturn. Your task is to look for books about Saturn for writing a school paper." (201) |
| 2 |
"Travel in space is real. First animals were sent into space to orbit the earth. Now humans pilot spacecraft in our universe. Your task is to look for books about astronauts for writing a school paper." (202) |
|
| Task type: |
Complex Browsing, Complex Keyword |
| Task type definition: |
“Complex-Browsing tasks were those in which the task phrasing did not contain match words to the bookshelf topic headings.” (p.88)
“The size of the Keyword search results sets served as the basis for the keyword task complexity measure in this study. Searches that yielded lengthy results sets (i.e., greater than 10 headings) were considered complex-keyword topics and search which yielded 10 or fewer headings were considered simple-keyword topics.” (p.90)
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"The increasing size of the human population has led to the near extinction of several animals, including whooping cranes, bald eagles, and whales. There are people now who try to save and protect these rare and endangered animals from extinction. Your task is to look for books about endangered animals for writing a school paper." (201) |
| 2 |
One of California's most famous deserts is the Mojave Desert. The desert environment provides a home to unique plants, such as cacti, and animals; these plants and animals have adapted to living in the harsh desert climate. Your task is to look for books about the desert environment for writing a school paper." (202) |
|
|
|
Borgman, C.L., Hirsh, S.G., Walter, V.A., & Gallagher, A.L. (1995). Children's search behavior on browsing and keyword online catalogs: The Science Library Catalog Project. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(9), 663-684.
|
| Task type: |
basic, unstructured search |
| Task type definition: |
"All search questions were drawn from teacher-compiled lists of current science curricula in grades 4 through 6. Search topics varied slightly between the research sites due to differences in class topics and records in the databases." (670) "All search questions were drawn from teacher-compiled lists of current science curricula in grades 4 through 6. Search topics varied slightly between the research sites due to differences in class topics and records in the databases. Topics for LAPL were adapted from those used in
Experiments l-3. Topics were balanced by science (Dewey classes 500-599) vs. technology (Dewey classes 600-699); in Experiments 1 and 2, topics also were balanced by depth of hierarchy. In Experiments 1-3, all topics were defined by the experimenters. In Experiment 4, one topic in each set was selected by the child, within a science or technology topic area." (670) "Children were "given six search topics (three science and three technology topics), one at a time, in the same sequence" (671) |
|
|
Hert, C.A. (1996). User goals on an online public access catalog. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(7), 504-518.
|
| Task type: |
Specific (known) entities |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I'm looking for an article I already have because I want to get color copies of it" (p.508) |
|
| Task type: |
Unknown entities |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I’m looking for an article on the Rorschach technique" (p.508) |
|
| Task type: |
Information about entities |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I want to know how far back this journal goes" (p.508) |
|
| Task type: |
Information (without specification of numbers of types of entities) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I’m basically searching for anything about Hannibal" (p.508) |
|
|
|
Navarro-Prieto, R., Scaife, M., & Rogers, Y. (1999). Cognitive strategies in web searching. Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Human Factors and the Web, 43-56. http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/hfweb/proceedings/navarro-prieto/index.html.
|
| Task type: |
specific fact-finding |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look for data base algorithm in Java |
| 2 |
Look for criteria for the diagnosis of diseases |
| 3 |
Look for word definition |
|
| Task type: |
exploration of availability |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find all the available jobs for profession |
| 2 |
Find all information about 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature |
|
|
|
Chevalier, A., & Kicka, M. (2006). Web designers and web users: Influence of ergonomic quality of the web site on the information search. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64, 1031-1048.
|
| Task type: |
information search tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"participants carried out navigational and content-related tasks"(1039) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Question A: What is the main difference between an analogical recording and a numeric recording?" (1046) |
| 2 |
"Question B: You wish to go to the Espace Culture shop. You are a student at the University of Aix-en-Provence and you have no car. Which buses do you have to take?" (1046) |
| 3 |
"Question C: Next week is your grandmother’s birthday.
She particularly likes classical music. You decide to buy
her a Hector Berlioz CD (featuring Charles Munch and
Suzanne Danco Boston). How much do the shop
members and non-members have to pay for it on the
Espace Culture site?" (1046) |
|
|
|
Hargittai, E. (2002). Second-level digital divide: Differences in people's online skills. First Monday, 7(4).
|
| Task type: |
Not named |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Information about local cultural events in the area such as art shows, musical performances, theatre shows or movies |
| 2 |
Music they could listen to online |
| 3 |
A Web site comparing different presidential candidates’ thoughts on abortion |
| 4 |
Tax forms |
| 5 |
Art by kids |
|
|
|
Debowski, S. (2001). Wrong way: Go back! An exploration of novice search behaviours while conducting an information search. The Electronic Library, 19, 371-382.
|
| Task type: |
complex task |
| Task type definition: |
"They were provided with an hour to work with a bibliographic database service, and were then required to search for resources on a complex four-concept task" |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The impact of technology on teacher performance and satisfaction |
|
|
|
Kim, J. (2006). Task as a Predictable Indicator of Information Seeking Behavior on the Web. Unpublished dissertation, Rutgers University.
|
| Task type: |
Factual task |
| Task type definition: |
A factual task is an 'asking a fact' task. It includes naming, defining, identifying, describing, and listing. A factual task has a definite answers, which is explicitly represented in the text. The expected outcome for a factual task is often a named entity.. Since the answer is easily recognizable when it was found, the searcher knows exactly when to end the search. (p.57) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You plan to visit San Francisco next week. One of your friends who has been there suggests that you visit a seafood restaurant where he enjoyed a great seafood dish. He only remembers that it is known as the oldest seafood restaurant in town. you would like to know the name of that restaurant. (p.192) |
|
| Task type: |
Interpretive task |
| Task type definition: |
An interpretive task is a 'thinking/understanding and searching' task, that is, a task to configure an answer rather than simply and concisely locate one. It is rather open-ended, but more focused and goal-oriented than an exploratory task. It may have more than one answer that can be supported with evidence from the text. The expected outcome... is a paragraph(s) or passage(s) to summarize, describe, explain, interpret, infer, contract, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, or discuss, etc. (p.58) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Your cousin, who is just a typical teenage girl, said that one of her best friends has started to smoke. You fear that your cousin might take up smoking in the near future because of her best friend. You believe that the best time to stop smoking is before one starts. So, you decide to educate her to keep her from smoking. Specifically, you think that you have to find some information focusing on what could happen if she starts smoking. (p.193) |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory task |
| Task type definition: |
An exploratory task is basically motivated by searcher desire to broaden his or her knowledge of a topic. As it is open-ended, it can be difficult to phrase and it often includes multiple aspects or a number of concepts. Also, it is difficult to determine when the best answer is found. It has a vaguely structured information need because the information required to accomplish it cannot be determined in advance. So, it follows the expanding search pattern, which follows the paths leading to new or unknown areas. (p.58) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You have recently moved to Boston, MA and are very interested in buying a home. You have heard that most homes built before 1978 have some lead paint. After looking through a sales listing, you found that most houses or apartments, which are over 50-60 years old, were reported as 'lead paint unknown.' Even though they are reported as such, you believe that those houses have lead-based paint. You think that you should learn about lead paint and housing before you visit any of these places. The web seems like a good place to obtain this information. (p.194) |
|
|
|
Jansen, B.J., Booth, D., & Smith, B. (2009). Using the taxonomy of cognitive learning to model online searching. Information Processing & Management, 45(6), 643-663.
|
| Task type: |
Remembering |
| Task type definition: |
Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory (Table 2); Scenario must have participant describe, list, or name factual information (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
List 5 movies directed by Steven Spielberg |
| 2 |
Who wrote the Macarena? |
| 3 |
List 5 symptoms of a heart attack. |
| 4 |
What is Klinefelter’s Syndrome? |
| 5 |
List 5 states in America that have a sales tax on clothing. |
| 6 |
What is Pennsylvania’s state sales tax, and which items are exempt? |
| 7 |
What are the top 10 US vacation spots? |
| 8 |
In terms of aircrafts, what does the acronym CAT stand for? |
|
| Task type: |
Understanding |
| Task type definition: |
Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining (Table 2); Scenario must have participant translate, construe, interpret, or extrapolate information (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Give a brief plot summary of the TV show, Veronica Mars. |
| 2 |
Briefly explain the meaning of the lyrics of ‘‘You are the Moon” by the Hush Sound. |
| 3 |
What are the benefits of Vitamin K? |
| 4 |
What are the differences between a cold and the flu? |
| 5 |
Explain the steps you would have to take if you wanted to sell a lamp on Ebay. |
| 6 |
Which websites would you check if you were looking for car listings online? |
| 7 |
Terrorism and hijacking aside, what kind of things does the average traveler need to consider when traveling somewhere by plane? |
| 8 |
Is it statistically safer to travel by car, boat, train, or airplane? |
|
| Task type: |
Applying |
| Task type definition: |
Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing (Table 2); Scenario must have participant exploit information and put the resulting knowledge into action (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are some possible characteristics of a person who would enjoy trip-hop music? |
| 2 |
About how many songs can a 80G portable mp3 player hold? |
| 3 |
Your friend has Chickenpox, but (for whatever reason) does not want to consult a doctor. Develop a list of instructions to aid in his or her recovery. |
| 4 |
What are the characteristics of someone who would be highly susceptible to heat stroke? |
| 5 |
You and a roommate are planning on refurnishing your living room. You want to get a new couch, recliner, television, and lamp. Considering the average budget of a college student, calculate an estimated cost for each of the items as well as a total estimated cost. |
| 6 |
You want to sell one of your old pairs of boots on Ebay. Create a listing for your boots (include all relevant information you’d need to sell them). |
| 7 |
You are planning a trip to Africa with your travel agent. What questions would you ask with regard to health and safety? |
| 8 |
You decide to spend your Spring Break in Orlando, Florida. You want to leave from Philadelphia March 5th and return on the 12th. Which website offers the cheapest airline ticket for your trip, and how much does it cost? |
|
| Task type: |
Analyzing |
| Task type definition: |
Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing (Table 2); Scenario must have participant deduce, scrutinize, or survey information (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are the main differences between techno and trance music? |
| 2 |
A certain show has intense violence and coarse language. What television rating should it receive? |
| 3 |
What are the main things to look for when selecting a health care provider? |
| 4 |
What is one problem with America’s current health care system? What is a possible solution for this problem? |
| 5 |
Explain how ecommerce has affected the retail industry. |
| 6 |
You find a great deal online, but it’s from a company that you have never heard of before. How do you determine of the website is legitimate or not before you make your purchase? |
| 7 |
What problems do airlines face because of commuter response to terrorism in the media? How can they overcome these issues? |
| 8 |
What are the benefits of planning a trip (researching destinations, purchasing tickets, and making reservations) online as opposed to using a travel agency? |
|
| Task type: |
Evaluating |
| Task type definition: |
Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing (Table 2); Scenario must have participant appraise or relate information to the real world (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Create a list of pros and cons for the new iPod Shuffle. Based off of this, would you purchase it (assuming you had the money to do so)? Why or why not? |
| 2 |
Which of the new ipods would be most suitable for the average college student? Why? |
| 3 |
What are the current available methods for tattoo removal, and how effective are they? Which method do you think is the most practical? Why? |
| 4 |
You just moved to a new town and are looking for a chiropractor. Prepare a list of criteria to judge the practices in your area and indicate priority. |
| 5 |
Would you get better results if you listed an item for sale on Ebay or Amazon? Why? |
| 6 |
Do you think it is more beneficial for clothing companies to sell their goods online or in a physical store? Why or why not? |
| 7 |
Your friend is planning on studying abroad next year, but has no idea where to go. He is a business major and will be funding the trip himself. Recommend a country for him to visit and give reasons to support your recommendation. |
| 8 |
You live in New York City and want to take a trip to Boston. Which method of transportation would be most effective? Why? |
|
| Task type: |
Creating |
| Task type definition: |
Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing (Table 2); Scenario must have participant formulate, generate, restructure, or combine information in a novel way (Table 3) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Design a radio ad for the movie, Fearless. |
| 2 |
Which do you think will have better overall sales – the XBox 360, the Nintendo Wii, or the Playstation 3? Why? |
| 3 |
Your friend just got back from studying abroad and suddenly developed a high fever. Dry cough, chills, and breathing difficulties soon followed. What could your friend have? |
| 4 |
Given the current medical technology, when (if ever) do you think scientists will develop a cure for AIDS? Why? |
| 5 |
What do you think will be the next advancement in ecommerce? Give reasons for your choice. |
| 6 |
You notice a recent charge on your credit card that you did not make, and you suspect that someone has stolen your credit card information. What steps would you take to correct the recent fraudulent charge and to prevent more fraudulent purchases on your card? |
| 7 |
You and a friend are planning a trip to NYC. Both of you live in Philadelphia, have no car, and have $200 each to spend on the whole day. Create travel plans and a tentative itinerary for the day. |
| 8 |
Considering current technology, how long do you think it take until cars running on alternative fuel (i.e. not fossil fuel) will become commonplace? Why? |
|
|
|
Fidel, R. (1984). Online searching styles: A case-study based model of online searching behavior. Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 35, 211-221.
|
| Task type: |
operationalist search |
| Task type definition: |
"a move that uses the system features in order to modify a retrieved set without changing the conceptual meaning it represents" (212) |
| Task type: |
conceptualist search |
| Task type definition: |
"modifies a retrieved set by changing the meaning of the concept it represents" (212) |
|
|
Oldroyd, B.K., & Citroen, C.L. (1977). Study of strategies
used in online searching. Online Review, 1, 293-310.
|
| Task type: |
search path |
| Task type definition: |
"No instructions were given as to how to carry out the search. This was left entirely to the searcher, as it was hoped that this would give him entire freedom to conduct the search in his natural way." (296) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Aluminum (aluminium coatings on titanum. To provide a lubricating surface on titanium, it is proposed to apply an aluminum coating. The questioner wishes to see papers describing how the coating can be applied by any method. He is also interested in papers describing how satisfactorily this surface performs as a lubricant." (297) |
| 2 |
"Methods of remote sensing of environmental pollution. The requestor was asked to provide information on types of sensor equipment which could be used to monitor industrial air and water pollution. Thermal pollution can be excluded as this is not of interest." (297) |
|
|
|
Woelfl, N. (1984). Individual differences in online search behavior:
The effect of learning styles and cognitive abilities on process and
outcome. Unpblished doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, OH.
|
| Task type: |
string search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Patient selection for a clinical trial of antidepresive agents (51) |
|
| Task type: |
concepts that are difficult to search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Right-to-left shunts in congenital heart disease (exclude left-to-right shunts) (51) |
|
| Task type: |
nonalphabetic characters |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Validity and reliability of 24-hour dietary recalls as a method of estimating protein and calorie intake. (51) |
|
| Task type: |
actual search request |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Assessing the nutritional status of cancer patients. (51) |
|
|
|
Logan, E. L. and Woelfl, N. N. (1986). Individual differences in online searching behavior of novice searchers. In J. M. Hurd (Ed.), ASIS '86: Proceedings of the 49th ASIS Annual Meeting (pp. 163 165). Medford, NJ.: Learned Information.
|
| Task type: |
Online Search |
| Task type definition: |
N/A |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1) a midterm search for bibliographic information on two selected topics
2) a final search initiated by the student as the result of an actual client query. |
|
|
|
Ford, N., Wood, F.E. & Walsh, C. (1994). Cognitive styles and searching. Online and
CD-Rom Review, 18 (2), 79-86
|
|
Borgman, C.L. (1986). The user's mental model of an information retrieval system: an experiment on a prototype online catalog. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 24(l), 47-64.
|
| Task type: |
simple |
| Task type definition: |
"simple tasks required the use of only one index and no more than one Boolean operator" (p. 53)
|
| Task type: |
complex |
| Task type definition: |
"complex tasks required two or more indexes and one or more Boolean operators" (p. 53) |
|
|
Sharit, J., Hernandez, M.A., Czaja, S.J., & Pirolli, P. (2008). Investigating the roles of knowledge and cognitive abilities in older adult information seeking on the Web. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 15(1).
|
| Task type: |
simple |
| Task type definition: |
"Simple problems generally dealt with common conditions, required few answers, and were relatively well-defined" (p.13). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The US Government has a department that deals with aging and issues which concern older adults. Find a Web site for one of these departments, the Administration on Aging. |
| 2 |
In the Administration on Aging Web site, find a Web page containing information on ways to remodel a home or apartment that makes it more senior-friendly or more comfortable for older adults. |
|
| Task type: |
complex |
| Task type definition: |
"The complex problems generally dealt with uncommon conditions, required many answers, and were more ill-defined" (p.13). |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Suppose you have a friend and suspect he or she is overweight. You remember something called the BMI that might help determine whether your friend is overweight or not. You know 2 facts about your friend:
(a) his or her height is 5 feet 2 inches (or 62")
(b) his or her weight is 175 pounds
Use the Internet to find out whether your friend is overweight or not. Also, what does BMI mean? |
| 2 |
Flu season is coming around and you're interested in getting a flu shot. However, you want to be sure you don't belong to the group of people who should not receive this shot. Find information on at least 3 types of people who should not get a flu shot. |
| 3 |
4. You've decided that you want to get back in shape. Using the Internet, find information on 5 things you can do to get back into shape. Remember that these recommendations must be appropriate for your age. |
| 4 |
5. A friend of yours uses a wheelchair. He wants to get a new one and has asked you to help him find information on the Internet regarding new models and prices. Wheelchairs are also known as mobility solutions and you can recommend new designs that don't look like traditional wheelchairs but are still recommended for older adults. Find 3 mobility solutions and corresponding prices for your friend. They cannot all be wheelchairs. |
|
|
|
Fidel, R., Davies, R.K., Douglass, M.H., Holder, J.K., Hopkins, C.J.,
Kushner, E.J., Miyagishima, B.K., & Toney, C.D. (1999). A visit to
the information mall: Web searching behavior of high school students.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50,
24-37.
|
| Task type: |
Closed task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The first assignment the team observed asked the students to identify a specific plant which grew in the Pacific Northwest, to provide a picture or a sketch of the plant, and to answer questions about that plant such as its genus/
species name, common names, origin, uses, and historical significance. |
|
| Task type: |
Open task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The second assignment included a list of three Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for horticultural sources. Students were asked to describe five sources by recording the name of the source, briefly describing the layout of the source and the information it offered, and explaining how they might use the source in relation to the horticulture class. |
|
| Task type: |
Open task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The third assignment was identical to the first one, but this time students were asked to select a state flower. |
|
| Task type: |
Closed task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
During the time students were working on the third assignment, they were also engaged in another assignment: Looking for pictures of five specific plants. |
|
|
|
Edyburn, D.L. (1988). Examining the successful retrieval of information
by students using online databases. School Library Media Quarterly, 16,
256-259.
|
| Task type: |
simple factual retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"searching with only one word for names, dates, or lists of information; or use of the index to identify the correct form of the search keyword" [p.258] |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Who wrote the book Winnie the Pooh? ___ was the author of Winnie the Pooh. |
|
| Task type: |
complex factual retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
"requiring the use of more than one [encyclopedia] article to answer the question, creative insight that would suggest possible keywords to search, or narrowing of an initially high retrieval rate" [p. 258] |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Which was invented first, the camera or the motorcycle? The ___ was invented before the ___. |
|
| Task type: |
subject-generated search task |
| Task type definition: |
"The second type of search in each session, tasks three and four, involved locating the answers to student-generated questions." [p. 258] |
|
|
Large, A., Beheshti, J., & Rahman, T. (2002). Gender differences in collaborative web searching behavior: an elementary school study. Information Processing and Management, 38(3), 427-443.
|
| Task type: |
Research |
| Task type definition: |
Search tasks embedded within the context of a school project to make poster and oral presentation about the Olympics.
Subjects could choose one sport (from a list of 14) and one research topic (from a list of 12) related to that sport.
|
|
|
White, R. W., & Kelly, D. (2006). A study on the effects of personalization and task information on implicit feedback performance. In Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 297-306). Arlington, Virginia, USA: ACM.
|
| Task type: |
Academic Research |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
News and Weather |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Shopping and Selling |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Hobbies and Personal Interests |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Jobs/Career/Funding |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Entertainment |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Personal Communication |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Teaching |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Task type: |
Travel |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
|
|
Kim, J. (2006). Task difficulty as a predictor and indicator of web searching interaction. In CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 959-964). Montreal, Quebec, Canada: ACM.
|
| Task type: |
Factual |
| Task type definition: |
Specific question & specific answer |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You plan to visit San Francisco next
week. One of your friends who has
been there suggests that you visit
the restaurant that is known as the
oldest seafood restaurant in town.
You want to know the name of the
restaurant. (p.962, Table 1) |
|
| Task type: |
Interpretive |
| Task type definition: |
Specific question & general answer |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Your cousin, who is a typical
teenage girl, said that one of her
friends started to smoke. You fear
your cousin might begin smoking in
the near future. So, you decide to
educate her. Specifically, you think
that you have to find some
information focusing on what could
happen if she starts smoking. (p.962, Table 1) |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory |
| Task type definition: |
General question & general answer |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You have recently moved to Boston
and you are interested in buying a
home. You have heard that most
homes built before 1978 have some
lead paint, but that their paint
status is often reported as
“unknown.” You think you should
learn about lead paint and housing.
The Web seems like a good place to
locate this information. (p.962, Table 1) |
|
|
|
White, R. W., & Marchionini, G. (2007). Examining the effectiveness of real-time query expansion. Information Processing & Management, 43(3), 685-704.
|
| Task type: |
Known-item task |
| Task type definition: |
"The known-item search tasks required subjects search for particular pieces
of information (e.g., an email address, a name, a date or time)." (p. 690) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are doing some research for a term paper you are writing and need to find the name of
the first woman to travel in space and her age at the time of her flight. |
| 2 |
You have just finished reading an interesting article about physics from a popular journal. It has been five years since the article was published but you note that the author is Walter Johnson at the University of Minnesota. Your task is to find his current email address. |
| 3 |
You have just finished reading an interesting article about internal medicine from a popular journal. It has been five years since the article was published but you note that the author is Susan Johnson at the University of Michigan. Your task is to find her current email address. |
| 4 |
You have just finished reading an interesting article about geology from a popular journal. It has been five years since the article was published but you note that the author is George Johnson at the University of Nebraska. Your task is to find his current email address. |
| 5 |
You are doing some research for a term paper you are writing and need to find the name of the first team to win the Super Bowl and the date it was played. |
| 6 |
You are doing some research for a term paper you are writing and need to find the name of the first man to win the New York Marathon and what his time was. |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory task |
| Task type definition: |
"The exploratory tasks were phrased in the form of simulated work task situations (Borlund, 2000), i.e.,
short search scenarios that were designed to reflect real-life search situations and allow subjects to develop
personal assessments of relevance. ... The exploratory search tasks required subjects
to gather information on a particular topic to allow them to perform some action (e.g., help a friend construct
a letter of complaint, decide on an art gallery to visit)." (p. 690) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are about to depart on a short-tour along the west coast of Italy. The agenda includes
a visit to the country’s capital, Rome, during which you hope to find time to pursue your
interest in modern art. However, you have recently been told that time in the city is limited
and you want information that allows you to choose a gallery to visit. |
| 2 |
A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been complaining that they are finding it difficult to attain a place due to a much larger and varied number of people attending university. You were unaware if their assessment was correct so you have decided to find out how the composition of the student population has changed over the past 5 years. |
| 3 |
You are currently working as a research assistant at a local university. A colleagues has recently been diagnosed with a dust allergy caused by dust in his working environment. He is writing a letter to the university complaining about the lack of cleanliness. He has asked for you to help him find information on the causes of dust allergies that may be useful for constructing this letter. |
| 4 |
While in a mobile phone shop, you overhear a staff member telling one of their friends to wait until 3rd Generation phones are available before purchasing a new one. The staff are looking for a quick sale and don’t seem to be very forthcoming with information on this technology so you decide to find out for yourself what special features will be available on 3rd Generation mobile phones before making a decision. |
| 5 |
Your friend has just finished reading a copy of a national newspaper in which there is mention of Internet music piracy. This article suggests that the costs of steps taken to stop the illegal downloading of music are passed directly to the consumer. You decide to research which actions have been most cost-effective in combating the problem. |
| 6 |
While out for dinner one night, one of your friends’ guests who is from Europe is complaining about the price of gasoline and all the factors that cause it. Throughout the night they seem to complain about everything they can, reducing the credibility of their earlier statements so you decide to research which factors actually are important in deciding the price of gasoline in the US and in Europe. |
|
|
|
Yang, S. (1997). Information seeking as problem-solving using a qualitative approach to unfover the novice learners'
information-seeking process in a perseus hypertext system. Library and Information Science Research, 19(1), 71-92.
|
| Task type: |
class assignment |
| Task type definition: |
"The subjects had to complete five assignments during the
semester. Two of them were used as the tasks for the study; the first (Task A) in
mid-semester, and the second (Task B) at the end of the semester. Task A was
concerned with whether the ruins of Athens left an impression of inadequacy, and
Task B examined attitudes toward competition and strife in Classical Greece. These
tasks required the learners’ thoughtful and sustained examination of a given topic
over an extended period of time using the Perseus application." (p.76) |
|
|
Bell, D. & Ruthven, I. (2004). Searcher's assessments of task complexity for Web searching. In Advances in Information Retrieval, 26th European Conference on IR Research, ECIR 2004 (pp. 57-71).
|
| Task type: |
Complexity level 1 |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity level 1 are tasks where the tasks are almost completely a priori
determinable. It is generally clear what information is required, how to find
the information and how to assess relevance. However, some parts of the
search process or information needed may be vague." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task groups A, Lowest complexity (Task A1) - A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been
complaining that they are finding it difficult to attain a place due to the rising numbers
of students. You were unsure if their assessment was correct so you have decided to
find out how the size of the student population changed over the last 5 years and how
it is expected to change over the coming 5 years. |
| 2 |
Task groups A, Lowest complexity (Task B1) -
Whilst in a mobile phone shop, you overhear a staff member telling one of their
friends to wait until 3G or 3rd Generation phones are available before purchasing a
new one. The staff are looking for a quick sale and don’t seem to be very forthcoming
with information on this technology so you decide to find out yourself what special
features will be available on 3G or 3rd Generation mobile phones before making a
decision. |
| 3 |
Task groups C, Lowest complexity (Task C1)
While out for dinner one night, your friend complains about the rising price of petrol
however as you have been driving for long, you are unaware of any major changes in
price. You decide to find out how the price of petrol in the UK has changed in recent
years. |
|
| Task type: |
Complexity level 2 |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity level 2 are tasks in which the desired information may be clear,
however the searcher must make case-by-case decisions regarding the inputs
and search process." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task groups A, Medium complexity (Task A2) -
A friend has recently been applying to various universities and courses but has been
complaining that they are finding it difficult to attain a place due as a much larger and
varied number of people are attending university. You were unaware if their
assessment was correct so you have decided to find out how the composition of the
student population has changed over the last 5 years. |
| 2 |
Task groups B, Medium complexity (Task B2) -
Whilst in a mobile phone shop, you overhear a staff member telling one of their
friends to wait until 3rd Generation phones are available before purchasing a new one.
The staff are looking for a quick sale and don’t seem to be very forthcoming with
information on this technology so you decide to find out yourself what special
features will be available on 3rd Generation mobile phones before making a decision. |
| 3 |
Task groups C, Medium complexity (Task C2) -
Whilst out for dinner one night, one of your friends’ guests is complaining about the
price of petrol and all the factors that cause it. Throughout the night they seem to
complain about everything they can, reducing the credibility of their earlier
statements so you decide to research which factors actually are important in deciding
the price of petrol in the UK |
|
| Task type: |
Complexity level 3 |
| Task type definition: |
"Complexity level 3 are the most complex tasks. In this type of task the
whole search may be unclear from the start, i.e. it is unclear what
information is being sought, how to obtain relevant information and how the
searcher will know they have found relevant information." |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task groups A, Highest complexity (Task A3) -
A friend who has been attempting to gain a university place has been complaining
that there are too many people attending university today, you were unsure if this
assessment was correct and have decided to find out what changes there have been in
the student population in recent times. |
| 2 |
Task groups B, Highest complexity (Task B3) -
Whilst in a mobile phone shop, you overhear a staff member telling one of their
friends to wait to buy a 3rd Generation phone. Your friend didn’t want to be sucked
into buying something that may soon be obsolete so has asked you to explain 3rd
Generation mobile phone technology to them. |
| 3 |
Task group C, Highest complexity (Task C3) -
Whilst having dinner with an American colleague, they comment on the high price of
petrol in the UK compared to other countries, despite large volumes coming from the
same sources. Unaware of any major differences, you decide to find out how and why
petrol prices vary worldwide. |
|
|
|
Kim, Y.-M., & Rieh, S. Y. (2005). Dual-Task Performance as a Measure for Mental Effort in Library Searching and Web Searching. Proceedings of the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
|
|
Kim, K.-S. (2000). Users, tasks and the Web: Their impact on the information-
seeking behavior. Proceedings of the 21st National Online Meeting,
USA.
|
| Task type: |
factual information search task |
| Task type definition: |
"In the factual information search task, there existed a Web page providing the correct answer to the question given, and the participants were asked to continue their search until they located the Web page and to make a bookmark of it." |
| Task type: |
topical information search task |
| Task type definition: |
"In the topical information search task, the participants were told to make bookmarks of more than one Web page that they found relevant to the topic given." |
|
|
Mead, S.E., Sit, R.A., Rogers, W.A., Jamieson, B.A., & Rousseau, G.K. (2000). Influences of general computer experience and age on library database search performance. Behaviour & Information Technology, 19(2), 107-124.
|
| Task type: |
Simple |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look for 2 books by John Grisham
|
| 2 |
Look for a book called Internet Navigator |
| 3 |
Look for 2 books about insomnia therapy |
| 4 |
Look for a book involving Mount Olympus |
|
| Task type: |
Conjunctive (AND) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look for 3 books by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom |
| 2 |
Look for a book with the word jelly and the word beer in the title |
| 3 |
Look for a book about abdomen muscles and back muscles |
|
| Task type: |
Disjunctive (OR) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Look for 3 books by Susan Faludi or Naomi Wolf |
| 2 |
Look for 4 books with the word U-Haul or the word Bekins in the title |
| 3 |
Look for 2 books about Hershey chocolate or chocolate candy |
|
|
|
Tombros, A., Ruthven, I., & Jose, J.M. (2005). How users assess Web pages for information seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(4), 327-344.
|
| Task type: |
"Background search" |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants were asked
to find general background information on a topic, essentially
as much information as possible on a topic. In our
study the participants were asked to find information on the
demographics of the Internet." (p.331) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"find information on the demographics of the Internet." (p.331) |
|
| Task type: |
"Decision task" |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants had to gather information
and make a decision based on the information
found while searching. The participants, in this case, were
asked to decide on the best hi-fi speakers available in their
own price range." (p.331) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"decide on the best hi-fi speakers available in their own price range." (p.331) |
|
| Task type: |
"Many items task" |
| Task type definition: |
"In this task the participants were asked to
compile a list of items. This task specifically asked the participants
to compile a list of interesting things to do over a
weekend in the city of Kyoto." (p.331) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"compile a list of interesting things to do over a weekend in the city of Kyoto." (p.331) |
|
|
|
Xu, Y., & Liu, C. (2007). The dynamics of interactive information retrieval behavior, part II: An empirical study from the activity theory perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(7), 987-998.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"The information-seeking task was described with the following search statement: Assume you are taking a health education course. You will be asked to search online for documents about “the relationship between mobile phone radiation and health.” Documents addressing the following questions considered relevant are: Does use of mobile phones pose radiation threats to users’
health? Why are there such or no such radiation threats to health? What is the proper way to use a mobile phone to protect your health from radiation? You will take an online quiz (10 questions) based on the knowledge you learned in the search process. Those who score well (> or = 80) will be entered in a lottery to win $50. If nobody scores well, the person with the highest score will get the prize." (p.989) |
|
|
|
Wu, M., Muresan, G., McLean, A., Tang, M.-C. M., Wilkinson, R., & Li, Y. (2004). Human versus machine in the topic distillation task. Paper presented at the Proceedings of SIGIR 2004, Sheffield, UK.
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
Eight topics were selected from the topic set used by the main
(automatic) Web TREC track. For each of these topics, a search
scenario was provided in order to provide the participants a
context of their search activity |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Title: Bilingual education
Search task: You are a volunteer of your local community.
You are asked to help to create a guide to all online
information on bilingual education that may be of interest
to your local residents. |
|
|
|
Woodruff, A., Rosenholtz, R., Morrison, J. B., Faulring, A., & Pirolli, P. (2002). A comparison of the use of text summaries, plain thumbnails, and enhanced thumbnails for web search tasks. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(2), 172-185.
|
| Task type: |
Picture |
| Task type definition: |
"participants were asked to locate a picture of a given entity." (p.177)
"Characteristics - Requires identification of a graphical element" (p. 177, Table 1) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find a picture of a giraffe in the wild. |
|
| Task type: |
Homepage |
| Task type definition: |
"participants were asked to locate the homepage of an individual whom they did not know" (p. 177)
"Characteristics - Requires genre classification (correct pages somewhat
textual, many incorrect pages entirely textual)" (p. 177, Table 1) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find Kern Holoman’s homepage.” (p.177, Table 1) |
|
| Task type: |
E-commerce |
| Task type definition: |
"participants were asked to locate a consumer electronics item for purchase." (p. 177)
"Characteristics - Requires genre classification (correct pages highly graphical;
incorrect pages highly graphical, e.g., product reviews)" (p.177, Table 1) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find an e-commerce site where you
can buy a DVD player. Identify the
price in dollars.” |
|
| Task type: |
Side-effects |
| Task type definition: |
"participants were asked to locate three or more side-effects of a given drug." (p.177)
"Characteristics - Requires semantic information (word proximity and position
in layout useful, genre useful)" (p.177, Table 1) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
“Find at least three side effects of
Halcion.” |
|
|
|
White, R. W., Jose, J. M., & Ruthven, I. (2003). A task-oriented study on the influencing effects of query-biased summarisation in web searching. Information Processing & Management, 39(5), 707-734
|
| Task type: |
Search for a fact |
| Task type definition: |
"finding a named persons current e-mail address" (p.718) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Assume that you are a research student and have just finished reading a very interesting article
from a popular journal in your area of research. It has been five years since the article was first
published, but you note that the author is Jan-Jaap IJdens from the Robert Gordon University,
Aberdeen. You have a keen interest in what the article discusses and would like to send an
electronic mail to the author. However, you contact the university and find that Dr. IJdens has
moved, leaving no forwarding e-mail address. Your task is to find his current e-mail address. (p.731, Appendix) |
|
| Task type: |
Search for a number of items |
| Task type definition: |
"finding five hotels in Paris, France that offer an online booking
service" (p.718) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Next weekend, a close friend of yours is hoping to go on a short-break to Paris, France. He has
recently moved house and does not have a phone line installed. As a result he has asked you to
look for hotels in the city on his behalf. Both of you are not too confident about your French
speaking skills and would like to find hotels that offer an online registration service. Your friend
expects to get Internet access again soon and he would like both the registration pages web
address and the page ID from five such hotels in the city, so that he can pursue the booking
himself.(p.731, Appendix) |
|
| Task type: |
Decision search |
| Task type definition: |
"finding information about the 'best' impressionist art museum in Rome, Italy" (p.718) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You are about to depart on a short-tour along the west coast of Italy. The agenda includes a
visit to the countrys capital, Rome, during which you hope to find time to pursue your interest in impressionist paintings. As your time in the city is limited to only two (2) hours you would like to
save time and find information about the citys best impressionist art museum prior to your departure. (pp.731-732, Appendix) |
|
| Task type: |
Background search |
| Task type definition: |
"finding information about dust allergies in the workplace" (p718) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
You work in an old building and one of your colleagues has developed a severe dust allergy
which you believe is caused by his working environment. He is writing a letter to complain about
the lack of cleanliness in your working environment and has asked you to help find information
about dust allergies. (p.732, Appendix) |
|
|
|
Trzebiatowski, E. (1984). End User Study on BRS/After Dark. RQ, 23(4), 446-450.
|
| Task type: |
Self-assigned |
| Task type definition: |
"Participants selected their own search topics and database. Searchers were restricted to searching one database but were not given a search time limit." [p. 447] |
|
|
Tenopir, C., & Shu, M. E. (1989). Magazines in full text: Uses and search strategies. Online Review, 13(2), 107-118.
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
"Eight questions asked at a public library or undergraduate academic library were searched on Dialog's version of MASAP (see Table 2, extracted from [10])." (p.111) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How do liquor laws affect the liquor industry? |
| 2 |
Is abortion discussed in sex education programmes? Does sex education have any effect on the abortion rate (increase or decrease)? |
| 3 |
How does attitude toward death vary by religion? |
| 4 |
Is plagiarism in politician's speeches or writings new? Is it common? |
| 5 |
How have microcomputers been used with preschool children? |
| 6 |
Find me information about the morals or ethics of tv evangalists. |
| 7 |
I need information on the fishing rights that were granted to the Soviet Union by
Pacific nations such as Kiribati and Vanuatu. |
| 8 |
Can you get AIDS from mosquitoes? |
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
HOW IS FAX AND TELETEXT BEING APPLIED IN THE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION? |
| 2 |
HOW DO LIQUOR LAWS AFFECT THE LIQUOR INDUSTRY? |
| 3 |
WHAT IS THE INTERFACE BETWEEN TOURISM AND THE FOOD SERVICES? |
| 4 |
HOW IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BEING APPLIED IN THE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS? |
|
| Task type: |
document location (online) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find and download articles about Chinese Dance |
|
| Task type: |
document location (print) |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find citations for relevant articles the library will have |
|
| Task type: |
browsing for background information |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
read or scan articles or portions of articles about telecommunications |
|
| Task type: |
browsing through a journal |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
scan articles from Science issues last year |
|
| Task type: |
fact retrieval |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
what was the date and time of the Challenger explosion? |
|
| Task type: |
find peripheral mention of something or someone |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find all mentions of Ellison Onizuka or a certain court case |
|
| Task type: |
word counting |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
locate articles that use a set of vocabulary words for students to read in English as a Second Language class |
|
| Task type: |
special features |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find articles about 'computer use with physical therapy' that have photographs, or pictures in the print version so I can show them in a class report |
|
| Task type: |
special items |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
find recipes with certain ingredients |
|
|
|
Te'eni, D., & Feldman, R. (2001). Performance and satisfaction in adaptive Websites: an experiment on searches within a task-adapted Website. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2(3).
|
| Task type: |
Experimental Tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"What is the name of the professor who conducts research on "Industrial
Relations" and has an office in the school's main building?" (12) |
| 2 |
"What is the name of the professor who teaches the "Finance seminar" this
semester, and who has office hours on Sunday afternoon?" (12) |
| 3 |
"A faculty member published in 1995 the article "Teaching human-computer interaction: the design of windows." What, if anything, does this faculty member teach on Fridays this semester?" (12) |
| 4 |
"A student wants to take all the mandatory courses in Information Systems given by an external faculty member who has a personal web site. List these courses by name. You can find personal websites in the faculty sites within the school website." (13) |
|
|
|
Sit, R. A. (1998). Online library catalog search performance by older adult users. Library & Information Science Research, 20(2), 115-131.
|
| Task type: |
author, subject, or title searching |
| Task type definition: |
require the ability to search by author, subject or title |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What is the name of a book written by Agatha Christie? (p.119) |
|
| Task type: |
information location and comprehension |
| Task type definition: |
require the ability to locate and understand info displayed by the online cataog |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What is the due-date of a copy of Dune? (p.119) |
|
| Task type: |
cross-referencing |
| Task type definition: |
search uses a cross-reference suggested by the online catalog to find related records to the initial search |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
the online catalog suggests the cross-reference search: "S = blindness" as part of the results from the user-initiated search: "S = eye". |
|
| Task type: |
Boolean searching |
| Task type definition: |
broadening or narrowing a search using and, or, not |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
S = cancer and eye (p.119) |
|
| Task type: |
Keyword searching |
| Task type definition: |
using a “key” word found in a record’s title or description, using the catalog’s keyword searching funciton |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
K = killer bees (p.119) |
|
| Task type: |
Database change |
| Task type definition: |
switching databases to search for and retrieve appropriate records |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Switching from the Library Catalog to the Magazines Database. |
|
|
|
Shaw, D. J., & Czaja, R. F. (1992). User interactions with the PDQ cancer information system. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 80(1), 29-35.
|
| Task type: |
unspecified |
| Task type definition: |
"To assess PDQ's usability, a set of test questions appropriate for PDQ was developed." [p. 30] |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What are the forms of treatment for astrocytoma (adult) grade 2? |
| 2 |
What is the standard treatment for advanced prostate cancer, stage D? What is the difference between stages C and D? |
| 3 |
What are the treatment options for refractory, poorly differentiated, nodular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma? Had CHOP and monoclonal antibodies. MD offered interferon. What else is there? |
| 4 |
What is the prognosis for small cell carcinoma of the lung, metastases to other sites? |
| 5 |
Are there any interferon studies for renal cell cancer? |
| 6 |
I need protocols on use of interferon for renal cell carcinoma, not excluding patients with brain metastases.
|
| 7 |
My husband has stage three adenocarcinoma of the lung that has metastasized to the abdomen. Are there any investigational studies using radiation therapy and/or hyperthermia to treat tumors such as this? If so, where? |
| 8 |
I need protocols in Illinois for a patient with metastatic small cell lung cancer. |
| 9 |
How can I contact a Dr. Tom O'Conor (not sure of spelling) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania?
|
| 10 |
Need lung cancer specialist in Portland, Oregon. |
|
|
|
Rapp, B. A., Siegel, E. R., Woodsmall, R. M., & Lyon-Hartmann, B. (1990). Evaluating MEDLINE on CD-ROM: An Overview of Field Tests in Library and Clinical Settings. Online Review, 14(3), 172-187.
|
|
Palmquist, R. A., & Kim, K.-S. (2000). Cognitive style and on-line database search experience as predictors of Web search performance. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51(6), 558-566.
|
| Task type: |
"factual search task" |
| Task type definition: |
"The factual search task was to find information on general
requirements for applying for graduate study at the
University. There existed a specific piece of target information,
and the participant was required to continue searching
until he or she located the target information. The participant
was asked to make a bookmark of the Web page
containing the target information once they found it." (p.561) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Your graduation is coming closer. You are thinking of
several options for your future, and one of them is to pursue
further studies in a UT graduate school. First, you decide to
learn more about the requirements for the admission. Find
information on requirements for admission, for US graduates
applying for UT graduate programs. When you locate
the Web page listing the requirements, make a bookmark of it." (p. 565, Appendix 2) |
|
| Task type: |
"topical search task" |
| Task type definition: |
"The other search task was more
topical in nature—to find information helpful to the participant’s
future career plans. As the participant was allowed to
search for information related to the career of his or her
interest, the relevance of the retrieved information was
judged subjectively by the participant. Bookmarks were
made of the pages that the participant felt were useful, thus
overtly signaling that those pages were judged relevant." (p. 561) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Before your graduation, you decide to collect information
on your future job and career.
Find any information that you think useful to prepare for
your future career. For example, you might want to search
for information on questions like: (1) What kind of jobs is
available and/or suitable for a person with a background like
yours? (2) Where can you find information on the jobs? (3)
Is there any career service available on campus? (4) Is there
any job fair on campus? (5) What are you supposed to do for
interviews— before, during, and after interviews? (6) How
should you prepare your resume (curriculum vitae) and/or
other documents? (7) Are there any people who are currently
employed and want to share their experience? and
many others. When you located a useful resource, make a
bookmark of it. And go on for the next. Find three to five
Web resources that you think useful and bookmark them." (p.565, Appendix 2) |
|
|
|
Meadow, C. T., Wang, J., & Yuan, W. (1995). A study of user performance and attitudes with information retrieval interfaces. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(7), 490-505.
|
| Task type: |
General |
| Task type definition: |
Assigned “a set of predesigned search tasks with graduated levels of difficulty”(p.492). No further details.
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find information on the following search topics:
1. All recordsi n the databasew ritten by M. J. Hicks. |
| 2 |
2. There is a facility in Modesto, California which uses
old automobile tires to produce useful electric power.
Find information about this facility. |
| 3 |
3. Find information about policy on energy conservation
in hospitals. |
| 4 |
4. What can you find about the effect of alternative (to
fossil) fuels on the greenhouse effect? Such fuels include
methanol, gasohol, and alcohol. |
| 5 |
5. Find current information about environmental impact
studies on the use of alcohol fuels. |
|
|
|
Marchionini, G., Lin, X., & Dwiggins, S. (1990). Effects of search and subject expertise on information seeking in a hypertext environment. In Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science (pp.129-137). Toronto, Canada.
|
| Task type: |
simple fact questions |
| Task type definition: |
locate factual answers to the questions |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Teachers in Brown university have used a system in the classroom to provide animation and visualization of the structure of a computer program. What is the system? Can the system provide 3 dimensional animation? |
| 2 |
Who received ACM distinguished dissertation award in 1986? |
|
| Task type: |
open-ended |
| Task type definition: |
This type has two parts. "The first part is similar to the simple fact type in that specific answers can be found and judged correct immediately. The second part is vague and open-ended and answers are less easily evaluated for
correctness." (p.131) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The speed of browsing and searching is critical for a hypertext system. The system we are using, HyperCard, has successfully achieved rapid card retrieval. Please identify the particular technique used to achieve such speed. What are key factors that affect the selection of retrieval techniques for hypertext systems? |
| 2 |
HyperTalk is the programming language in HyperCard. What other hypertext systems mentioned have a built-in programming language? What are the features of these programming languages? |
|
|
|
Marchionini, G., Dwiggins, S., Katz, A., & Lin, X. (1993) Information seeking in full-text end-user-oriented search systems: The roles of domain and search expertise. Library and Information Science Research, 15(1), 35-69.
|
| Task type: |
Specific facts |
| Task type definition: |
Yields "a specific answer that could be located in the database" (p.44)
|
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
In what year will the "Chunnel" (the channel tunnel being built to link the U.K. and France) be completed? (p.69) |
|
| Task type: |
Open-ended, general information |
| Task type definition: |
"a question for which there was no specific answer" (p.44) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How are power companies coping with the economic problems of global
warming? (p.69) |
| 2 |
What is the latest thinking on the introduction of quality circles to
business and what are they supposed to do? (p.69) |
|
| Task type: |
Close-ended questions |
| Task type definition: |
Not defined |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the provisions in the Federal Acquisitions Regulations that specify
the rights of a contractor to copyright in computer software developed
under a contract, including any contract provisions that must be inserted
into an agreement? (p.69) |
| 2 |
What authority does the President have to control excess profits by
defense contractors during times of national emergency? (p.69) |
| 3 |
May a contractor pursue a claim for the cost of preparing a contract proposal before a government agency's board of contracts appeals? |
|
| Task type: |
Open-ended questions |
| Task type definition: |
"there is no one 'right' answer" (p.54) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
What statutes and regulations require that the government give preference to U.S. flag vessels when entering into contracts for the ocean transportation of supplies for the armed forces?
Under what conditions maya foreign flag vessel be used?
Would the preference apply where performance under a contract requires the use of a specialized underwater cable laying vessel? (p.69) |
|
|
|
Lorigo, L., Pan, B., Hembrooke, H., Joachims, T., Granka, L., & Gay, G. (2006). The influence of task and gender on search and evaluation behavior using Google. Information Processing & Management, 42(4), 1123-1131.
|
| Task type: |
Navigational tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"tasks where the users intent
is to find a particular web page, such as a homepage" (p.1124) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the homepage of Emeril—the chef who has a TV cooking program
|
| 2 |
Find the page displaying the routemap for Greyhound buses
|
| 3 |
Find the homepage of Michael Jordan, the statistician
|
| 4 |
Find the homepage for graduate housing at Carnegie Mellon University
|
| 5 |
Find the homepage of the 1000 Acres Dude Ranch |
|
| Task type: |
informational tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"informational tasks arise when the intent is to find information
about a topic that may reside on one or more web pages" (p.1124) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Who discovered the first modern antibiotic? |
| 2 |
What actor starred as the main character in the original Time Machine movie? |
| 3 |
You are excited to cast your vote in the democratic presidential primary—when can you do so in NY? |
| 4 |
Where is the tallest mountain in NY located? |
| 5 |
A friend told you that Mr. Cornell used to live close to campus- between University and Stewart Aves.—does anyone live in his house now;
if so, who? |
|
|
|
Lazonder, A.W., Biemans, H. J.A., & Wopereis, I.G.J.H. (2000). Differences between novice and experienced users in searching information on the World Wide Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51(6), 576-581.
|
| Task type: |
"Locate site" - high, medium or low complexity |
| Task type definition: |
"The first task dealt with
locating a Web site ... The complexity of the
“locate site” tasks was determined by the level of inferencing
(low, medium, high) required to deduce the site’s URL
from the task description." (p. 578)
The operational definitions of task complexity:
"Simple/Low: URL is given in the task description
Medium: URL can be easily inferred from the task description
Complex/High: URL cannot be inferred from the task description" (p.578, Table 1) |
| Task type: |
"Locate Information" - high, medium or low complexity |
| Task type definition: |
"the second task dealt with locating
information on that site. ... The difficulty of the "locate information"
tasks was determined by the structural complexity of the
particular WWW-sites." (p. 578) The operational definitions of task complexity:
"Simple/Low: Site contains distinct categories and subcategories with well-structured information
Medium: Site contains indistinct categories and subcategories with well-structured information" (p.578, Table 1)
Complex/High: Site contains indistinct categories and subcategories with
ill-structured information
|
|
|
Large, A., Beheshti, J., & Moukdad, H. (1999). Information seeking on the Web: navigational skills of grade-six primary school students. Proceedings of the 62nd ASIS Annual Meeting, 84-97.
|
| Task type: |
Not specified |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Each student was required to choose one from a list of 14 Winter Olympics sports, and to produce a large poster dealing with that sport for assessment by the teacher. The students were given a list of 12 possible research topics dealing with different aspects of their chosen sport - training routines, dietary recommendations, personalities, performance during the Olympics, etc. - from which they could select several to present in their poster. The students also had to make individual oral presentations to the class on their sport." (p.85-86) |
|
|
|
Kruschwitz, U., & Al-Bakour, H. (2005). Users want more sophisticated search assistants: Results of a task-based evaluation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(13), 1377-1393.
|
| Task type: |
document search |
| Task type definition: |
"we designed tasks with fairly precise targets
for which we knew documents existed that satisfy the
information request (possibly more than one) and in which
the main difficulty would be in finding such a document
rather than assessing several very similar documents or collecting
information from different documents." (p. 1382) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Search Task 1 (brazil ): You are asked to find information
about the current president of Brazil. In particular, locate a
document that has detailed information about what he did in
the 1980s and 1990s before becoming the president of Brazil
in 2002. Documents which give a general profile of the
country are not relevant. |
| 2 |
Search Task 2 (iraq): Locate a document that contains short
summaries of the main political figures in Iraq before the last
Iraq war started. |
| 3 |
Search Task 3 (aids): The end of last year saw the start of a
new big campaign to fight Aids worldwide. Find a document
that gives a summary of initiatives from around the
world. Documents about activities in individual countries
only and documents prior to 2003 are not relevant. |
| 4 |
Search Task 4 (flu): Some scientists say that a new global
outbreak of flu is inevitable. Find a document that has details
of how Britain was affected by a recent outbreak of flu and
how the country coped with that. |
| 5 |
Search Task 5 (lotto and lottery): Find a document that has
recent, detailed examples of how the money that the UK
government raised by selling Lotto tickets was spent. Information
which is more than 1 year old is not relevant. |
| 6 |
Search Task 6 (m6 toll): There was a lot of discussion about
the first privately financed motorway in Britain that opened
recently. Find a document that has information about how
some of the money that users of this motorway have to pay
will be used to support other projects. |
| 7 |
Search Task 7 (travel): Imagine you want to travel abroad
and you are not sure what exactly you are (or are not)
allowed to take with you in your hand luggage when boarding
a plane. Locate a document that has details about who
you can contact to get up-to-date information. |
| 8 |
Search Task 8 (euro): Find a document that has details about
the development of the Euro currency since its introduction
in 1999. Documents are only relevant if they have milestones
of the Euro’s development covering the entire period
from 1999 till at least the end of 2003. |
|
|
|
Kim, K.-S. (2001). Information seeking on the web: Effects of user and task variables. Library & Information Science Research, 23(3), 233-256.
|
| Task type: |
a known-item search |
| Task type definition: |
"a task requiring the
searcher to find a piece of information known to exist. The search scope is so narrowly
focused and specific that every searcher should have the same criteria in evaluating the
relevance of the retrieved information. For this known-item task, there was a piece of target information that all searchers were expected to retrieve." (p.238) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Your graduation is coming closer. You are thinking of several options for your future, and one
of them is to pursue further studies in the UT [University of Texas] graduate school. First, you
decide to learn more about the requirements for the admission. Find information on
requirements for admission, for U.S. graduates applying for UT graduate programs. When
you locate the Web page listing the requirements, make a bookmark of it. |
|
| Task type: |
a subject search |
| Task type definition: |
"a task requiring the searcher to retrieve
information that is related to the given subject or topic regarded as useful to the searcher." (p.239) "The scope of this search is so broad that each searcher could have different criteria for
evaluating the relevance of the retrieved information. It is well known that individuals can
hardly reach a consensus when evaluating the relevance of information. Thus, for the subject
task used in this study, the usefulness of the retrieved information, judged by each searcher,
was adopted as the criteria." (p.239) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Before your graduation, you decide to collect information on your future job and career. Find
any information that you think useful to prepare for your future career. For example, you
might want to search for information on questions like: What kinds of jobs are available and/
or suitable for a person with a background like yours? Where can you find information on the
jobs? Is there any career service available on campus? Is there any job fair on campus? What
are you supposed to do for interviews—before, during, and after interviews? How should
you prepare your resume (curriculum vitae) and/or other documents? Are there any people
who are currently employed and want to share their experience? and many others. When you
locate a useful resource, make a bookmark of it, and go on to the next. Find three to five Web
resources that you think useful and bookmark them. |
|
|
|
Kelly, D., & Belkin, N. J. (2004). Display time as implicit feedback: Understanding task effects. Paper presented at the Proceedings of SIGIR 2004, Sheffield, UK.
|
| Task type: |
naturalistic |
| Task type definition: |
"The Task Questionnaires elicited the tasks that were of current
interest, or that were expected to be of interest, to the user during
the study. Task was defined for this study as the goal of
information-seeking behavior. Subjects were asked to think about
their online information-seeking activities in terms of tasks, and
to create personal labels for each task. They were provided with
some example tasks such as “writing a research paper,” “travel,”
and “shopping,” but in no other way were they directed,
influenced or biased in their choice of tasks. Indeed, anything
that a user believed was a task was permitted." (p.378) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Subject 1: Research Dissertation (1), Shopping (2), Read News (3), Movie Reviews & Schedules (4), Preparing Course Material
(5), Entertainment (6) |
| 2 |
Subject 2: Get insurance quotes (1), Get course materials (2), Read the news online (3), Academic research (4), Shopping (5),
Check weather (6), Hobbies (7), General interests (8), Teaching (9), Get information (10), Check email (11) |
| 3 |
Subject 3:
Studying Quals (1), Scheduling resources (2), General knowledge (3), Entertainment (4), Research paper – interests
groups (5), Research paper – intellectual property (6), News (7), Shopping (8), Person search (9), Translation (10),
Weather (11), Amherst Alumni Activities (12), Political activism (13), Funding (14), Teaching stuff (15), Pet search
assistance (16), Computer maintenance (17), Student government work (18), Research – general (19) |
| 4 |
Subject 4:
Searching and browsing for computer interests (1), Searching for project – brain images (2), Online shopping (3),
Viewing news (4), Writing an academic paper (5), Checking the weather (6), Looking up directions (7), Searching health
information (8), Searching auto repair information (9), Browsing friends’ homepages (10), Checking email online (11),
Language studying (12), Checking university web pages (13), Sports searching (14), Searching for employment (15),
Install software (16), Find books in university library (17), Find companies’ information (18), Check what’s on tv (19),
Check my own homepage (20), Check my lab web page (21), To know holidays (22), Check university network
utilization (23), Learn python language (24), Learn to use SIP (25) |
| 5 |
Subject 5:
Travel (1), Applying for fellowships, grants and awards (2), Submitting papers to conferences (3), Staying in touch with
people (4), Shopping for material possessions (5), Writing dissertation (6), Legal trouble/conflict (7), Weather (8),
Development as a scholar (9), Teaching instruction (10), Additional teaching gigs (11), Housing options (12) |
| 6 |
Subject 6:
Dissertation (1), Publication (2), News (3), Reading (4), Job searching (5), Registration (6), Household method (7),
Shopping (8), Booking tickets (9), Music – downloads (10), Download software (11), Project in operating systems (12),
Research (13), Database systems (14), Compiler (15), Change new I-20 (16), Look up directory (17), Review maps
online (18), Recreation (19), English learning (20), Registration (21) |
| 7 |
Subject 7:
Selling on Ebay (1), Shopping for books for oral exam (2), Writing reviews for amazon (3), Printing chords and
tablatures (4), Setting up personnel website (5), Running fantasy soccer league (6), Research for dissertation (7),
Download updates for digital recording studio (8), Reviewing for journal (9), Purchase mandolin (10), Research for
Exit9 (11), Record music (12), Check news (13), Shopping (14), Correct Greek homework (15), Purchase guitar (16),
Check on flights (17), Purchase theater tickets (18), Get address [1] (19), Consult teaching resources (20), Follow
conference (21), Compile reading packet (22), Check on jobs (23), Locate a friend (24), Find housing (25), Shop for
Profs for exam (26), Rent movies (27), Check on parking (28), Check transcripts (29), Get address [2] (30), Research
Napster (31), Check train schedule (32), Purchase concert tickets (33) |
|
|
|
Iivonen, M. (1995) Factors lowering the consistency in online searching. In Raitt, D.I., & Jeapes, B. (Eds.), Online information 95: Proceedings of 19th international online information meeting (pp. 101-107). Oxford: Learned Information Ltd.
|
| Task type: |
Simple and Specific |
| Task type definition: |
"The specificity was defined on the basis of the hierarchical level of the search request and the complexity on the basis ofthe llumbers of concepts in the search request." (102) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Border trade between Finland and the Soviet Union |
|
| Task type: |
Complex and Specific |
| Task type definition: |
"The specificity was defined on the basis of the hierarchical level of the search request and the complexity on the basis ofthe llumbers of concepts in the search request." (102) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Women as candidates, votes received by women candidates and women's voting behaviour in Finland in parliamentary elections in the 1980s |
|
| Task type: |
Simple and General |
| Task type definition: |
"The specificity was defined on the basis of the hierarchical level of the search request and the complexity on the basis ofthe llumbers of concepts in the search request." (102) |
| Tasks: |
|
| Task type: |
Complex and General |
| Task type definition: |
"The specificity was defined on the basis of the hierarchical level of the search request and the complexity on the basis ofthe llumbers of concepts in the search request." (102) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
The influence that alternative activities and environmental movements have on social decision-making and the use of power and on solving global environmental problems (102) |
|
|
|
Hsieh-Yee, I. (1998). Search tactics of Web users in searching for texts, graphics, known items and subjects: A search simulation study. In H. Iyer (Ed.), Electronic Resources: Use and User Behavior (pp. 61-83). New York: Haworth Press.
|
| Task type: |
Known item (text based) search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
To search for a text-based known-item, "Thc Presidential decision
directive on multilateral peace operations." |
|
| Task type: |
Known item (graphic based) search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
To search for a graphic-bascd known-item, "Survivors: a new vision
for endangered wildlife." |
|
| Task type: |
Subject (text based) search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
To search for Web pages similar to the previous item. ("Thc Presidential decision
directive on multilateral peace operations.") |
|
| Task type: |
Subject (graphic based) search |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
To search for Web pages similar to the "Survivors" page. ("Survivors: a new vision
for endangered wildlife.") |
|
|
|
Hsieh-Yee, I. (1993). Effects of search experience and subject knowledge on the search tactics of novice and experienced searchers. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 44(3), 161-174.
|
| Task type: |
General |
| Task type definition: |
Novice (end-user) vs. experienced (professional) searchers
Familiar vs. unfamiliar topics to searcher (based on domain knowledge) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Novice Searchers (1) Assume that you are involved in a research project
that will investigate the role of school administrators
in improving the quality of instructional programs and
the effectiveness of schools. You have decided to search
ERIC for information about this topic, and you want
to have at least 25 citations. Please tell the RA which
records you would like to print out (records will be
printed later). |
| 2 |
Novice searchers (2) Assume that you are the head of a reference department
and are in the process of compiling a bibliography
on reference interviews. You want to cover various
issues related to interviews conducted in the traditional
reference setting and those conducted in the online environment.
In particular, you are interested in including articles comparing these two kinds of interview. You
want at least 25 ERIC citations. Please tell the RA which
records you would like to print out (records will be
printed later). |
| 3 |
Experienced searchers:
(1) A researcher plans to investigate the role of school
administrators in improving the quality of instructional
programs and the effectiveness of schools. He has decided
to search ERIC for information about his topic,
and asked you to find at least 25 citations for him. Please
tell the RA which records you would like to print out
(records will be printed later). |
| 4 |
Experienced searchers (2) The head of a reference department is compiling
a bibliography on reference interviews. She wants to
cover various issues related to interviews conducted in
the traditional reference setting and those conducted in
the online environment. In particular, she is interested
in including articles comparing these two kinds of interview.
She asked you to find at least 25 ERIC citations
for her. Please tell the RA which records you would like
to print out (records will be printed later). |
|
|
|
Hirsh, S.G. (1997). How do children find information on different types of tasks? Children's use of the Science Library Catalog. Library Trends, 45(4), 725-745.
|
| Task type: |
simple browsing tasks |
| Task type definition: |
Simple browsing tasks were "those in which the task phrasing contained match words to the bookshelf or Dewey topic headings". (p.732) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"Electricity is necessary for turning on light switches and for using electric
sockets. Electricity allows household appliances, such as your refrigerator, to run. Your task is to look for books about electricity for writing a school paper." (p.742-743)
|
| 2 |
"There is an entire world of living creatures that inhabit the ocean. One of the most fascinating creatures is the translucent jellyfish. Your task is to look for books about jellyfish for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 3 |
"Growing plants, such as vegetables and flowers, requires knowledge about many things. For example, people with gardens need to know how much water and sunlight to give their plants. Your task is to look for books about growing garden crops for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 4 |
"The process of building a home is complex. It requires many steps, including designing architectural blueprints, surveying the land, and building the frame. Your task is to look for books about building homes for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
|
| Task type: |
complex browsing tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Complex-browsing tasks were those in which the task phrasing did not contain
match words to the bookshelf topic headings." (p.732) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"When it is dark, you can see stars, moons, and other objects in the nighttime sky. One of the objects in the nighttime sky is Saturn. Your task is to look for books about Saturn for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 2 |
"The increasing size of the human population has led to the near extinction of several animals, including whooping cranes, bald eagles, and whales. There are people now who try to save and protect these rare and endangered animals from extinction. Your task is to look for books about endangered animals for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 3 |
"One of California's most famous deserts is the Mojave Desert. The desert environment provides a home to unique plants, such as cacti, and animals; these plants and animals have adapted to living in the harsh desert climate. Your task is to look for books about the desert environment for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 4 |
"Travel in space is for real. First animals were sent into space to orbit the earth. Now humans pilot spacecraft in our universe. Your task is to look for books about astronauts for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
|
| Task type: |
simple keyword tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Searches that yielded ten or fewer headings were considered simple keyword topics." (p.733) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"When it is dark, you can see stars, moons, and other objects in the night-time sky. One of the objects in the nighttime sky is Saturn. Your task is to look for books about Saturn for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 2 |
"Electricity is necessary for turning on light switches and for using electric sockets. Electricity allows household appliances, such as your refrigerator, to run. Your task is to look for books about electricity for writing a school paper." (p.742-743). |
| 3 |
"There is an entire world of living creatures that inhabit the ocean. One of the most fascinating creatures is the translucent jellyfish. Your task is to look for books about jellyfish for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 4 |
"Travel in space is for real. First animals were sent into space to orbit the earth. Now humans pilot spacecraft in our universe. Your task is to look for books about astronauts for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
|
| Task type: |
complex keyword tasks |
| Task type definition: |
"Searches that yielded lengthy results sets(i.e., greater than ten headings) were considered complex-keyword topics." (p.733) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"The increasing size of the human population has led to the near extinction of several animals, including whooping cranes, bald eagles, and whales. There are people now who try to save and protect these rare and endangered animals from extinction. Your task is to look for books about endangered animals for
writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 2 |
"Growing plants, such as vegetables and flowers, requires knowledge about many things. For example, people with gardens need to know how much water and sunlight to give their plants. Your task is to look for books about growing garden crops for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 3 |
"The process of building a home is complex. It requires many steps, including designing architectural blueprints, surveying the land, and building the frame. Your task is to look for books about building homes for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
| 4 |
"One of California's most famous deserts is the Mojave Desert. The desert environment provides a home to unique plants, such as cacti, and animals; these plants and animals have adapted to living in the harsh desert climate. Your task is to look for books about the desert environment for writing a school paper." (p.743) |
|
|
|
Hertzum, M., & Frokjaer, E. (1996). Browsing and querying in online documentation: A study of user interfaces and the interaction process. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 3(2), 136-161.
|
| Task type: |
Training Tasks |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 1. The first task is a guided tour through TeSS intended to
uncover what mademoiselle Viola Fraculanski [the principal character in
the walk-up-and-use introduction to TeSS] learned about the standard
width of buttons in the X Window System. |
| 2 |
Task 2. What is the difference between a Form Widget and a Box
Widget? |
|
| Task type: |
information retrieval task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 3. In the user interface of TeSS text fields and buttons look much
the same. How can the buttons be changed to appear with rounded corners? |
| 2 |
Task 4. A function is to be executed every time a button of the class
Command Widget is activated. How should this function be registered? |
| 3 |
Task 5. Radio buttons are used in situations where exactly one option
must be chosen from a group of options. Which widget class is used to
implement radio buttons? |
| 4 |
Task 6. TeSS is divided into four subwindows, so-called panes, separated
by thin horizontal lines with square handles. To distinguish these
lines more clearly from other horizontal lines in the interface, they could be
made thicker. Find out how, if at all, this can be done. |
| 5 |
Task 7. The font in “TeSS Control Window” should be changed to Times.
How is that done? |
| 6 |
Task 8. How can a dialog box with, for example, an error message and
an OK button be made? |
| 7 |
Task 9. Which facility is available for string searching in Text Widgets? |
| 8 |
Task 10. Widgets, such as the list with hits from a search, can be made
temporarily invisible and thereby inaccessible. How is that done? |
| 9 |
Task 11. The caption on the button “done” should be changed to “quit.”
How is that done? |
| 10 |
Task 12. The three list fields in TeSS have both a vertical and a
horizontal scroll bar. As the items in these list fields are usually shorter
than the width of the list fields, the horizontal scroll bar is usually
superfluous. Which facility makes it possible to show the horizontal scroll
bar only when it is needed? |
| 11 |
Task 13. In Athena Widgets the creation of a widget is a three-step
process, where each step can be performed with an Xt-function. What are
the names of these three Xt-functions? |
| 12 |
Task 14. The text blocks that match a query are indicated with an
asterisk in the list with hits from the search. This indication should be
changed to the use of bold font. Given the information that the hit list is
implemented in Athena Widgets by means of the widget class List Widget,
find out how, if at all, this can be done. |
| 13 |
Task 15. The size of the titles of “TeSS Control Window” and its four
subwindows should be made a little larger than the remaining text. How is
that done? Assume, for the sake of convenience, that it is not necessary to
change the size of the fields containing the titles. |
| 14 |
Task 16. Each widget class has a number of resources controlling its
appearance and functionality. Which facility is used to set the values of
these resources? |
| 15 |
Task 17. Which widget class communicates with the Window Manager? |
| 16 |
Task 18. The three list fields in TeSS are implemented in Athena
Widgets by means of the widget class List Widget. Do List Widgets provide
the possibility to select more than one text block and copy them simultaneously
to the list field with text blocks selected for querying? |
| 17 |
Task 19. How is a field with a picture or figure included in the user
interface? |
| 18 |
Task 20. A Composite Widget has a Geometry Manager which positions
the children of the composite widget within its window. Which technique
shall the Geometry Manager use if the children are to be treated equally? |
| 19 |
Task 21. Where in the manuals can information about the initialization
of a widget class be found? |
| 20 |
Task 22. The edit field that appears when the button “find string” is
activated should be placed under the cursor so that the search string can be
entered right away. Find out how, if at all, this can be done. |
|
| Task type: |
Implementation Task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Task 23. TeSS is divided into four subwindows, so-called panes, separated
by thin horizontal lines with square handles. These handles make it
possible to change the relative size of the subwindows within the “TeSS
Control Window.” Restrict the possibilities for resizing the subwindows in
such a way that their height cannot become less than 2 cm. |
| 2 |
Task 24. In the subwindow “Formulation of Queries, Venn diagram
mode” the label “Select subset to show list of hits” should be made invisible.
Then the button “show number of hits in subsets” should be moved from
above the three circles to below them, i.e., to the place currently occupied
by the label. |
| 3 |
Task 25. In the subwindow “Formulation of Queries” (both query
modes) the input fields get a scroll bar whenever the length of their
contents exceeds their width. This facility is called “scroll bar when
needed.” Make these scroll bars thinner, for example, eight pixels wide. |
|
|
|
Hersh, W. R., & Hickam, D. H. (1995). An evaluation of interactive boolean and natural language searching with an online medical textbook. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(7), 478-489.
|
| Task type: |
General |
| Task type definition: |
Naturalistic queries provided by the users of the system, consisting of
"a statement about their patient and the information sought" (p.481) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Patient: 60-year-old menopausal woman without hormone
replacement therapy;
Info need: Are there adverse effects on lipids when progesterone is
given with estrogen replacement therapy? |
| 2 |
Patient: 60-year-old man with disseminated intravascular
coagulation;
Info need: pathophysiology and treatment of disseminated
intravascular coagulation |
| 3 |
Patient: 30-year-old with fever. lymphadenopathy. neurologic
changes. and rash;
Info need: t-cell lymphoma associated with autoimmune
symptoms |
| 4 |
Patient: .57-year-old man with hypercalcemia secondary to
carcinoma;
Info need: etfectiveness ofgallium therapy for hypercalcemia |
| 5 |
Patient: 35.year-old man vvith aids and pancytopenia;
Info need: pancytopenia in aids, workup, and etiology |
| 6 |
Patient: h&year-old man with adult-onset diabetes melliitus
noted to have thrombocytosis;
Info need: thrombocytosis. treatment and diagnosis |
| 7 |
Patient: 1 X-year-old pregnant woman with hyperthyroidism;
Info need: use of beta-blockers for thyrotoxicosis during
pregnancy |
| 8 |
Patient: 35-year-old with advanced metastatic breast cancer;
Info need: chemotherapy advanced for advanced metastatic
breast cancer |
| 9 |
Patient: 63-year-old man with acute renal failure probably 2nd to
aminoglyJcosides/contrast dye;
lnfo need: acute tubular necrosisdue to aminoglycosides. contrast
dye. outcome. and treatment |
| 10 |
Patient: 40-year-old man with cocaine withdrawal;
Info need: cocaine withdrawal management |
|
|
|
Haynes, B., McKibbon, A., Walker, C., Mousseau, J., Baker, L., Fitzgerald, D., Guyall, G., & Norman, G. (1985). Computer searching of the medical literature: An evaluation of the MEDLINE searching systems. Annals of Internal Medicine, 103, 812-816.
|
| Task type: |
Clinical questions |
| Task type definition: |
"To formulate standard searches, we chose six clinical problems, tow each dealing with issues in disease therapy, causation, and diagnosis."(p.812) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Should timolol be given to patients with recent myocardinal infarctions?
|
| 2 |
Which natural family planning method is best? |
| 3 |
Do smoking mothers have smaller babies? |
| 4 |
Does hepatitis B cause liver cancer? |
| 5 |
Can carcinoembryonic antigen be used to detect colonie cancer recurrence after "resection for cure"?
|
| 6 |
Should sputum crytoloty be used to screen for lung cancer? |
|
|
|
Fenichel, C. H. (1981). Online searching: Measures that discriminate among users with different types of experiences. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 32(1), 23-32.
|
| Task type: |
|
| Task type definition: |
Search tasks were “selected from a set of questions developed from “real” requests to ERIC searchers”’ included both specification of topic and specification of search outcome/goal |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Effects of TV violence on children, completely comprehensive search |
| 2 |
School busing and racial integration, moderate-sized bibliography |
| 3 |
Drug abuse, including alcohol, among students of elementary or secondary schools, substantial bibliography |
| 4 |
Collective bargaining in libraries of institutions of higher education, completely comprehensive bibliography |
|
|
|
Dennis, S., Bruza, P., & McArthur, R. (2002). Web searching: a progress-oriented experimental study of three interactive search paradigms. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(2), 120-133.
|
| Task type: |
Normal Internet queries |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1.1 Find pages listing jokes referring to Monica Lewinsky. |
| 2 |
1.2 You are planning to move to Florida. Find pages listing
jobs in the Florida area. |
| 3 |
1.3 Find pages containing women’s wave surfing competition
results over the last 2 years. |
| 4 |
1.4 Find pages about dyslexia. |
| 5 |
1.5 Find pages that discuss clothing sweatshops. |
| 6 |
1.6 Find pages that describe current or planned explorations
or scientific investigations of Antarctica. |
| 7 |
2.1 You own a personal computer that runs Windows ’95.
Find pages describing software that will test if it is Y2K
compliant. |
| 8 |
2.2 Find pages from which you can buy a pair of running
shoes (online or at an address provided by the page). |
| 9 |
2.3 Find pages that inform you which drugs are used to
treat depression. |
| 10 |
2.4 Find pages that discuss the disposal of long-lived radioactive
wastes. |
| 11 |
2.5 Find pages that discuss in vitro fertilization.
|
| 12 |
2.6 Are there any reliable or consistent predictors of mutual
fund performance? |
| 13 |
3.1 Find recipes for different varieties of carrot cake. |
| 14 |
3.2 Find prices of Toshiba notebook computers. |
| 15 |
3.3 You want to go skiing in Europe. Find pages describing
a package holiday. |
| 16 |
3.4 Find pages that discuss the concerns of the United
States government regarding the export of encryption
technology. |
| 17 |
3.5 What makes Deep Blue capable of beating a human
chess player? |
| 18 |
3.6 Find pages that provide information regarding traveling
in India. |
|
| Task type: |
Difficult Internet queries |
| Task type definition: |
"“hard” queries, that is, queries whereby it is difficult to a priori formulate query terms in response to an information need" (127) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
1.7 Identify instances of attacks on humans by Africanized
(killer) bees. Relevant documents must cite a
specific instance of a human attacked by killer bees.
Documents that note migration patterns or report attacks
on other animals are not relevant unless they also
cite an attack on a human. |
| 2 |
1.8 Find accounts of selfless, heroic acts by individuals or
small groups for the benefit of others or a cause.
Relevant documents will contain a description of specific
acts. General statements concerning heroic acts
are not relevant. |
| 3 |
1.9 What counterfeiting of money is being done in modern
times? Relevant documents must cite actual instances
of counterfeiting. Anticounterfeiting measures by
themselves are not relevant. |
| 4 |
1.10 Find information on shipwreck salvaging: the recovery
or attempted recovery of treasure from sunken
ships. A relevant document will provide information
on the actual location and recovery of treasure; on the
technology that makes possible the discovery, location,
and investigation of wreckages that contain or are
suspected of containing treasure; or on the disposition
of the recovered treasure. |
| 5 |
2.7 In what ways have quilts been used to generate income?
Documents mentioning quilting books, quilting
classes, quilted objects, and museum exhibits of quilts
are all relevant. Documents that discuss AIDS quilts
are irrelevant, unless there is specific mention that the
quilts are being used for fundraising. |
| 6 |
2.8 Do any countries other than the United States and
China have declining birth rates? To be relevant, a
document will name a country other than the United
States and China in which the birth rate fell from the
previous year. The decline need not have occurred in
more than 1 preceding year. |
| 7 |
2.9 Find ways of measuring creativity. Relevant items
include definitions of creativity, descriptions of characteristics
associated with creativity, and factors
linked to creativity. |
| 8 |
2.10 What is the status of the Three Gorges project? A
relevant document will provide the projected date of
completion of the project, its estimated cost, or the
estimated electrical output of the finished project. Discussions
of the social, political, or ecological impact
of the project are not relevant. |
| 9 |
3.7 What is the impact of poaching on the world’s various
wildlife preserves? A relevant document must discuss
poaching in wildlife preserves, not in the wild itself.
Also deemed relevant is evidence of preventive measures
being taken by local authorities. |
| 10 |
3.8 What are new methods of producing steel? Relevant
documents will discuss the processes adapted by entrepreneurs
who have organized so-called “minimills,”
and are producing steel by methods that differ from
the old furnace method of production. Documents that
identify the new companies, the problems they have
encountered, and/or their successes or failures in the
national and international markets are also relevant. |
| 11 |
3.9 What legal actions have resulted from the destruction
of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on
December 21, 1988? Documents describing any
charges, claims, or fines presented to or imposed by
any court or tribunal are relevant, but documents that
discuss charges made in diplomatic jousting are not
relevant. |
| 12 |
3.10 Find information on the use of dogs worldwide for law
enforcement purposes. Relevant items include specific
information on the use of dogs during an operation.
Training of dogs and their handlers are also relevant.
|
|
|
|
Connell, T. H. (1995). Subject searching in online catalogs: Metaknowledge used by experienced searchers. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(7), 506-518.
|
| Task type: |
Subject Search - Selective |
| Task type definition: |
"In two searches the participants were asked to find
material with similar subject coverage as the item described
in an abstract. This kind of search task imitates a
student’s request for a book “like” a faculty-recommended
book that is unavailable. The remaining four
search tasks evolved from patron reference queries. The
queries came from patrons’ questions in two departmental
libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The queries were in final negotiated form: i.e., the
queries were in the form that the reference librarian
searched after interviewing the patron. Five of the search
tasks were selective: Participants were asked to find one
or two good items that could help the patron answer the
question asked." (p 508) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
For the following search task the searcher was instructed
to find another book or books on the same subject(
s) of the abstract.
California and the Southwest. Thirty-two sociologists,
eachw riting separatec hapters,h ave producedt his economic
and cultural geographyo f California, Utah, Arizona,
and Nevada treated as a region. The book is profusely
illustrated and includes discussion of the physical
characteristicso f the region.p atternso f settlement,p roductive
activities, transportation and trade. population,
and certaina spectso f its political geography. |
|
| Task type: |
Subject Search - Comprehensive |
| Task type definition: |
"In two searches the participants were asked to find material with similar subject coverage as the item described in an abstract. This kind of search task imitates a student’s request for a book “like” a faculty-recommended book that is unavailable. The remaining four search tasks evolved from patron reference queries. The queries came from patrons’ questions in two departmental libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The queries were in final negotiated form: i.e., the queries were in the form that the reference librarian searched after interviewing the patron. ... One was comprehensive: Participants were requested to find everything published during the last 5 years that was related to the topic." (p 508) |
|
|
Choo, C. W., Detlor, B., & Turnbull, D. (2000). Information seeking on the Web - an integrated model of browsing and searching. First Monday, 5(2). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/729/638.
|
| Task type: |
Undirected viewing |
| Task type definition: |
"The individual is exposed to information with no specific informational need in mind. The overall purpose is to scan broadly in order to detect signals of change early. Many and varied sources of information are used, and large amounts of information are screened. The granularity of the information is coarse, but large chunks of information are quickly dropped from attention. The goal of broad scanning implies the use of a large number of different sources and different types of sources." (p.6) |
| Task type: |
Conditioned viewing |
| Task type definition: |
"The individual directs viewing to information about selected topics or to certain types of information. The overall purpose is to evaluate the significance of the information encountered in order to assess the general nature of the impact on the organization. The individual has isolated a number of areas of potential concern from undirected viewing, and is now sensitized to assess the significance of developments in those areas." (p.6) |
| Task type: |
Informal search |
| Task type definition: |
"The individual actively looks for information to deepen the knowledge and understanding of a specific issue. It is informal in that it involves a relatively limited and unstructured effort. The overall purpose is to gather information to elaborate an issue so as to determine the need for action by the organization." (p.6) |
| Task type: |
Formal search |
| Task type definition: |
"The individual makes a deliberate or planned effort to obtain specific information or types of information about a particular issue. Search is formal because it is structured according to some pre-established procedure or methodology. The granularity of information is fine, as search is relatively focused to find detailed information. The overall purpose is to systematically retrieve information relevant to an issue in order to provide a basis for developing a decision or course of action." (p.6) |
|
|
Capra, R., Marchionini, G., Oh, J. S., Stutzman, F., & Zhang, Y. (2007). Effects of structure and interaction style on distinct search tasks. Paper presented at the JCDL 2007: Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, Vancouver, B.C.
|
| Task type: |
Simple Lookup Task (single facet) |
| Task type definition: |
"In general, a lookup task involves finding a specific fact or an answer to a precisely defined question .... In our
study, lookup tasks were further divided into two groups
based on complexity. The complexity of lookup tasks was
determined by three contributing factors: 1) the number of
facets to be combined to get the target page, 2) the extent to
which a higher level thinking (rather than simple
recognition) such as comparing pages in the result set is
required, 3) the navigation path to a target BLS web page." (p.445) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How many job openings were there in the US in April, 2006? |
| 2 |
How many fatal work-related injuries were there in the US in 2004? |
| 3 |
What was the change in average hourly earnings in June, 2006? |
| 4 |
What occupation has the highest average pay? |
| 5 |
Which region had the highest number of job openings in April 2006? |
| 6 |
What was the unadjusted consumer price index for housing in May, 2006? |
|
| Task type: |
Complex Lookup (multiple facet) |
| Task type definition: |
"In general, a lookup task involves finding a specific fact or an answer to a precisely defined question .... In our study, lookup tasks were further divided into two groups based on complexity. The complexity of lookup tasks was determined by three contributing factors: 1) the number of facets to be combined to get the target page, 2) the extent to which a higher level thinking (rather than simple recognition) such as comparing pages in the result set is required, 3) the navigation path to a target BLS web page." (p.445) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Find the press release for the May 2006 consumer price indexes. |
| 2 |
Find the static table that reports the number of employees who work in different industries. |
| 3 |
Find the press release that reports employee benefits in 2005. |
| 4 |
Find the press release that reports the average wage for employees in Amarillo, TX. |
| 5 |
Find the press release that reports the consumer price index for Milwaukee, WI. |
| 6 |
Find the press release that reports the number of worker fatalities in South Carolina in 2004. |
|
| Task type: |
Exploratory |
| Task type definition: |
"an exploratory task involves general or illdefined
questions and typically evolves as search
progresses, possibly over multiple sessions" (p.445) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
Collecting data is not without controversy. Imagine you are writing a paper that assesses different criticisms that have been made on how BLS creates the consumer price index. Find several factors that would be addressed in your paper |
| 2 |
Collecting data is not without controversy. Imagine you are writing a paper that assesses different criticisms that have been made on how BLS creates the productivity report. Find several factors that would be addressed in your paper. |
| 3 |
Collecting data is not without controversy. Imagine you are writing a paper that assesses different criticisms that have been made on how BLS creates the national unemployment rate. Find several factors that would be addressed in your paper. |
| 4 |
Explore the BLS website to find information on a career of your choice. You may want to include specific information like salary, entry requirements, prospects for openings, etc., in addition to general information about the career. |
|
|
|
Browne, G. J., Pitts, M. G., & Wetherbe, J. C. (2007). Cognitive stopping rules for terminating information search in online tasks. MIS Quarterly, 31(1), 89-104.
|
| Task type: |
well-structured, low-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
One task asked participants to search for a 32-inch television at BestBuy.com |
|
| Task type: |
well-structured, medium-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
A second task asked participants to search for a job with Amazon.com |
|
| Task type: |
poorly-structured, high-complexity task |
| Task type definition: |
definition not provided |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
This task asked participants to search online for the map of a battlefield, in particular, the Battle of Fallen Timbers (a battle between troops of General Anthony Wayne and early American tribes that occurred near Toledo, Ohio, in 1794). ... Participants were also told that they would need to draw the battlefield from memory after performing their search. Because there is no developed cognitive template (for most people) and no clear definition of what constitutes a “battlefield” a priori, this task was not well structured. |
|
|
|
Broder, A. (2002). A taxonomy of web search. SIGIR Forum, 36(2), 3-10.
|
| Task type: |
Navigational |
| Task type definition: |
The immediate intent is to reach a particular site. (p.5) |
| Task type: |
Informational |
| Task type definition: |
The intent is to acquire some information assumed to be present on one or more web pages. (p.5) |
| Task type: |
Transactional |
| Task type definition: |
The intent is to perform some web-mediated activity. (p.5) |
|
|
Bilal, D., & Kirby, J. (2002). Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users. Information Processing & Management, 38(5), 649-670.
|
| Task type: |
fact-based task |
| Task type definition: |
"A fact-based task was given to both groups to search in Yahooligans! Fact-based tasks are
usually simple, certain, and uncomplicated in nature. Such tasks have a target answer that may be
a date, a location of an address, a lifespan of an animal, and the like. As Vakkari (1999) maintains,
‘‘simple tasks are routine information processing tasks where the elements of the task are
predetermined, i.e., [the user] knows them’’ (p. 826); meaning that the requirements of the task
(e.g., the amount of information needed) can be determined by the user." (p.656) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
How long do alligators live in the wild, and how long in captivity? |
|
|
|
Bhavnani, S.K., Drabenstott, K., & Radev, D. (2001). Towards a unified framework of IR tasks and strategies. ASIST 2001: Proceedings of the 64th ASIST Annual Meeting, 38, n.p.
|
| Task type: |
facual task |
| Task type definition: |
"Finding specific information (similar to a factual question)" (p.4, based on Pfaffenberger, 1996); user requires "a pinpointed factual answer" (p.7) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"My question is about poetry from the sixteenth century. I think that it was a poem by a guy named Bishop, but I'm not sure. I heard this poem or saying at the end of the movie "Forces of Nature,"…" (p.7) |
| 2 |
"I am looking for the amount of gold that is in Fort Knox as well as the amount of gold geologist think is still in the earth." (p.7) |
|
| Task type: |
sample task |
| Task type definition: |
"Collecting a few sources of high quality information" (p.4, based on Pfaffenberger, 1996); user requires "a sampling of documents in the field" (p.7) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I am interested in finding out the history of the town of Pomeroy, Washington. Any newspapers, local records, etc. would be helpful." (p.7) |
| 2 |
"I am interested in finding out the history of the town of Pomeroy, Washington. Any newspapers, local records, etc. would be helpful." (p.7) |
|
| Task type: |
in-depth or exhaustive task |
| Task type definition: |
"Collecting everything on a topic that is, conducting an exhaustive search to retrieve all available material." (p.4, based on Pfaffenberger, 1996); user requires "an in-depth or exhaustive collection of information" (p.7) |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"I am trying to gather information on the cave dwellings of early american indians in the southwest, i believe the tribe was anasazzi, but not sure." (p.7) |
| 2 |
"Names of tests used in Washington State to place a child in a higher grade, in elementary school, than his age dictates. i.e Kindergarten aged child into
Grade 1." (p.7) |
|
|
|
Bellardo, T. (1985). An investigation of online searcher traits and their relationship to search outcome. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 36(4), 241-250.
|
| Task type: |
None |
| Task type definition: |
Type not described |
| Tasks: |
| 1 |
"An undergraduate student who has to write a 10-page class paper wants highly relevant citations on the use of school busing to achieve racial integration. The student wants a good, moderate sized bibliography, without a lot of irrelevant citations if possible." [p. 249] |
| 2 |
"A graduate student is preparing a comprehensive literature review and wants all the references available on the topic of drug abuse, including alcohol, among students of elementary and secondary schools. The student would like as comprehensive a search as possible." [p. 249] |
|
|