A picture of Rob Rob Capra
My research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction and information retrieval. I work on projects related to interactive information retrieval, search interfaces, and personal information management. My work is unified by an interest in how people find, refind, manage and share information, and how technology can help support these tasks.

For an up-to-date list of my publications, please see:

Publications
2017 Capra, R., Arguello, J., and Zhang, Y. (2017). The effects of search task determinability on search behavior. Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR '17). (Best Paper Award)
Arguello, J., Choi, B., and Capra, R.. (2017). Factors affecting users' information requests. First International Workshop on Conversational Approaches to Information Retrieval (CAIR'17).
Shah, C., Capra, R., and Hansen, P. (2017). Research agenda for social and collaborative information seeking. Library & Information Science Research 32(2), 140-146.
Crescenzi, A., Capra, R., and Arguello, J. (2017). Time limits, information search and the use of search assistance. Proceedings of the Conference on Conference Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR '17).



2016 Arguello, J., and Capra, R.. (2016). The effects of aggregated search coherence on search behavior. ACM Transactions on Information Systems 35(1), Article 2, 30 pages.
Jones, W., Bellotti, V., Capra, R., Dinneen, J. D., Mark, G., Marshall, C., Moffatt, K., Teevan, J., Van Kleek, M. (2016). For Richer, for Poorer, in Sickness or in Health...: The Long-Term Management of Personal Information. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems.



2015 Capra, R., Arguello, J., Crescenzi, A., and Vardell, E. (2015). Differences in the Use of Search Assistance for Tasks of Varying Complexity. Proceedings of the 38th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR '15).
Jones, W., Capra, R., Diekema, A., Teevan, J., Perez-Quinones, M., Dinneen, J., and Hemminger, B. (2015). "For Telling" the Present: Using the Delphi Method to Understand Personal Information Management Practices. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '15).
Shah, C., Capra, R., and Hansen, P. (2015). Workshop on Social and Collaborative Information Seeking (SCIS). SIGIR Forum, 49(2), 117-122.
Shah, C., Capra, R., and Hansen, P. (2015). Report on the Workshop on Social and Collaborative Information Seeking (SCIS).



2014 Arguello, J. and Capra, R. (2014). The effects of rank and border on aggregated search coherence and search behavior. Proceedings of the 23st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '14).
Shah, C., Capra, R., Hansen, P. (2014). Collaborative information seeking [Guest editor's introduction]. IEEE Computer 47(3).
Capra, R., Vardell, E., and Brennan, K. (2014). File synchronization and sharing: User Practices and Challenges. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 51.
Chen, A., Capra, R., Wu, W. (2014). An investigation of the effects of awareness and task orientation on collaborative search. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 51.



2013 Capra, R., Khanova, J., Ramdeen, S. (2013). Work and personal e-mail use by university employees: PIM practices across domain boundaries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(5): 1029-1044.
Capra, R., Arguello, J., and Scholer, F. (2013). Augmenting web search surrogates with images. Proceedings of the 22st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '13).
Arguello, J., Capra, R., Wu, W-C. (2013). Factors affecting aggregated search coherence and search behavior. Proceedings of the 22st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '13).
Capra, R., Chen, A.T., McArthur, E., and Davis, N. (2013). Searcher actions and strategies in asynchronous collaborative search. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 50.
Crescenzi, A., Capra, R., and Arguello, J. (2013). Time pressure, user satisfaction, and task difficulty. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 50.
Shah, C., Hansen, P., and Capra, R. (2013). Collaborative information seeking: Consolidating the past, creating the future. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work Companion (CSCW '13).
Capra, R., Freund, L., Smith, C., Smucker, M., White, R. (2013). HCIR 2013: The seventh international symposium on human-computer interaction and information retrieval. SIGIR Forum 47(2).
Kelly, D., Arguello, J., and Capra, R. (2013). NSF workshop on task-based information search systems. SIGIR Forum 47(2).



2012 Kules, B., and Capra, R.. (2012). Influence of training and stage of search on gaze behavior in a library catalog faceted search interface. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(5): 114-138.
Arguello, J., and Capra, R.. (2012). The effect of aggregated search coherence on search behavior Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '12), p. 1293-1302.
Capra, R., Chen, A.T., Hawthorne, K., Arguello, J. Shaw, L., and Marchionini, G. (2012). Design and evaluation of a system to support collaborative search. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 49.
Capra, R., Chen, A.T., Hawthorne, K., Arguello, J. (2012). ResultsSpace: An experimental collaborative search environment. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 49.
Capra, R., Chen, A.T., Hawthorne, K., Marchionini, G., and Shaw, L. (2012). The ResultsSpace collaborative search environment. Proceedings of the 12th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '12)..
Capra, R., and Teevan, J. (2012). Personal informaiton management in a socially networked world. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work Companion (CSCW '12).
Capra, R., Golovchinsky, G., Kules, B., Russell, D., Smith, C., Tunkelang, D., and White, R. (2012). HCIR 2011: The fifth international symposium on human-computer interaction and information retrieval. SIGIR Forum 45(2).



2011 Stutzman, F., Capra, R., and Thompson, J. (2011). Factors Mediating Disclosure in Social Network Sites. Computers in Human Behavior 27(1): 590-598.
Capra, R. (2011). HCI Browser: A Tool for Administration and Data Collection for Studies of Web Search Behaviors. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability.
Capra, R., Velasco-Martin, J., Sams, B. (2011). Collaborative information seeking by the numbers. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability.
Shelby, J. and Capra, R. (2011). Sensemaking in collaborative exploratory search. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 48.
Capra, R., Kules, B., Smith, C., Tunkelang, D., and White, R. (2011). HCIR 2010: The fourth international symposium on human-computer interaction and information retrieval. SIGIR Forum 44(2).
Brinegar, J. and Capra, R. (2011). Managing Music Across Multiple Devices and Computers. Proceedings of the 2011 iConference, February 8-11, Seattle, WA.
Lee, C. and Capra, R. (2011). And now the twain shall meet: exploring the connections between PIM and archives. In I, Digital: Personal Collections in the Digital Era, edited by Lee, C. Chicago: Society of American Archivists.



2010
Capra, R., Marchionini, G., Velasco-Martin, J., and Muller, K. (2010). Tools-at-Hand and Learning in Multi-Session, Collaborative Search. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2010), 951-960.

Capra, R., Muller, K., Velasco-Martin, J. (2010). Classifications of Collaborative Search. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Collaborative Information Seeking. Held at CSCW 2010, Savannah, GA, Feb. 7, 2010.

Brinegar, J., and Capra, R. (2010). Understanding Personal Digital Music Collections. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting (ASIS&T 2010), October 22-27, 2010, Pittsburgh, PA. Won ASIS&T 2010 Best Poster Award.

Kules, B., and Capra, R. (2010). The Influence of Search Stage on Gaze Behavior in a Faceted Search Interface. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting (ASIS&T 2010), October 22-27, 2010, Pittsburgh, PA.

Capra, R. (2010). HCI Browser: A Tool for Studying Web Search Behavior. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting (ASIS&T 2010), October 22-27, 2010, Pittsburgh, PA.

Capra, R., Velasco-Martin, J., and Sams, B. (2010). Levels of Working Together in Collaborative Information Seeking and Sharing. Collaborative Information Seeking: Toward New Theories and Applications. Workshop held at ACM GROUP 2010, November 6, 2010, Sanibel, FL.

Kules, B., Capra, R., and Ryan, J. (2010). Transaction Log Analysis of User Actions in a Faceted Library Catalog Interface. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 2010), October 23, 2010, New Brunswick, NJ.



2009
Capra, R. (2009). A Survey of Personal Information Practices. In Personal Information Management, ASIS&T 2009 Workshop, November 7-8, 2009, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Capra, R. (2009). The HCI Browser Tool for Studying Web Search Behavior. Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 09), October 23, 2009, Washington, DC.
Kules, B., Capra, R., Banta, M., and Sierra, T. (2009). What Do Exploratory Searchers Look at in a Faceted Search Interface? Proceedings of the 9th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '09), Austin, TX, June 15 - 19, 2009.
Kules, B., Capra, R. (2009). Designing Exploratory Search Tasks for User Studies of Information Seeking Support Systems. Proceedings of the 9th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '09), Austin, TX, June 15 - 19, 2009.
Marchionini, G., Shah, C., Lee, C., and and Capra, R. (2009). Query Parameters for Harvesting Digital Video and Associated Contextual Information. Proceedings of the 9th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '09), Austin, TX, June 15 - 19, 2009.
Capra, R. (2009). HCI Browser: A Tool for Studying Web Search Behavior. ACM SIGIR Workshop on Understanding the User, Boston, MA, July 23, 2009.
Capra, R., Kules, B., Banta, M., and Sierra, T. (2009). Faceted Search for Library Catalogs: Developing Grounded Tasks and Analyzing Eye-Tracking Data. ACM SIGIR Workshop on Understanding the User, Boston, MA, July 23, 2009.
Capra, R., Clemens, R., Lee, C., Sheble, L. (2009). Contextual Information from Blogs in Video Digital Curation. Proceedings of DigCCurr 2009: Digital Curation: Practice, Promise, and Prospects, Chapel Hill, NC, April 1-3, 2009, pp. 196-198.
Marchionini, G., Tibbo, H., Lee, C., Jones, P., Capra, R., Geisler, G., Russell, T., Shah, C., Sheble, L., Jorda, S., Song, Y., Howard, D., Clemens, R., and Hill, B. (2009). VidArch: Preserving Video Objects and Context – Final Report, Techincal Report TR-2009-01, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Capra, R., and Marchionini, G. (2009). The Relation Browser Tool for Faceted Exploratory Search. Bulletin of the IEEE Technical Commitee on Digital Libraries 5(1), Spring 2009.



2008
Teevan, J., Jones, W., Capra, R. (2008). Personal Information Management (PIM) 2008. SIGIR Forum 42(2), Nov. 2008, 96-103. acm-dl

Barreau, D., Capra, R., Dumais, S., Jones, W., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (Eds.) (2008). Keeping, Refinding, and Sharing of Personal Information. Co-editor, special issue of ACM Transactions on Information Systems 26(4), September, 2008. acm-dl

Kules, B., and Capra, R. (2008). Creating Exploratory Tasks for a Faceted Search Interface. Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 2008), October 23, 2008, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, pp. 18-21. pdf

Capra, R., and Marchionini, G. (2008). Facted Exploratory Search Using the Relation Browser. Information Seeking Support Systems Workshop – An Invitational Workshop Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, June 26-27, 2008, Chapel Hill, NC. pdf
Marchionini, G., Capra, R., and Shah, C. (2008). Focus on Results: Personal and Group Information Seeking Over Time. Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 2008), October 23, 2008, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, pp. 46-49. pdf
Capra, R. (2008). Studying Elapsed Time and Task Factors in Re-Finding Electronic Information. Personal Information Management, CHI 2008 Workshop, Florence, Italy, April 5 - 6, 2008. pdf
Lee, C. A., Capra, R., Clemens, R., and Sheble, L. (2008). I Know It's Important, But What Am I Looking At? Strategies for Using Blog Content to Contextualize YouTube Videos. Proceedings of the Second Annual Society of American Archivists Research Forum, Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2008. pdf
Capra, R., and Marchionini, G. (2008). The Relation Browser Tool for Faceted Exploratory Search. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '08), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 16 - 20, 2008. Won third place in JCDL 2008 Best Demo contest. acm-dl
Capra, R., Lee, C., Marchionini, G., Russell, T., Shah, C., and Stutzman, F. (2008). Selection of Context Scoping for Digital Video Collections: An Investigation of YouTube and Blogs. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '08), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 16 - 20, 2008. acm-dl
Capra, R. (2008). Relation Browser Tool for Information Seeking. Sidebar in IEEE Computer, 42(3): 55. ieee-dl
Kules, B., and Capra, R. (2008). Designing Exploratory Search Tasks for ISSS Evaluation. Sidebar in IEEE Computer, 42(3): 62. ieee-dl



2007
Capra, R., Marchionini, G., Oh, J. S., Stutzman, F., and Zhang, Y. (2007). Effects of structure and interaction style on distinct search tasks. In Proceedings of the 2007 Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '07), Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 18 - 23, 2007. acm-dl
Capra, R., and Marchionini, G. (2007). Faceted Browsing, Dynamic Interfaces, and Exploratory Search: Experiences and Challenges. Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR 07), October 23, 2007, MIT CSAIL, Cambridge, MA, pp.7-9. pdf
Capra, R., and Marchionini, G. (2007). Visualizing Science and Engineering Indicators: Transitioning from Print to a Hybrid World. Technical Report TR-2007-07, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. pdf
Teevan, J., Capra, R., and and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2007). How people find and re-find. In Personal Information Management, edited by Jones, W., and Teevan, J., 22-34. Seattle: University of Washington Press.



2006 Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2006). Factors and Evaluation of Refinding Behaviors SIGIR 2006 Workshop on Personal Information Management. pp. 16-19. pdf
Capra, R. (2006). An Investigation of Finding and Refinding Information on the Web. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Blacksburg, VA, February 2006. abs pdf



2005 Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2005). Using Web Search Engines to Find and Refind Information. IEEE Computer 38(10): 36-42. ieee-dl
Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2005). Mobile Refinding of Web Information Using a Voice Interface: An Exploratory Study. In Proceedings of the 2nd Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CLIHC 2005), October 2005, Cuernavaca, Mexico. acm-dl



2003 Shao, Z., Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2003). Transcoding HTML to VoiceXML Using Annotation. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2003), November 3-5, 2003, Sacramento, CA, USA. ieee-dl
Pérez-Quiñones, M.A., Capra, R., and Shao, Z. (2003). The Ears Have It: A Task by Information Structure Taxonomy for Voice Access to Web Pages. Ninth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT 2003) (September 1-5, 2003, Zurich, Switzerland). gscholar
Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M. A. (2003). Re-Finding Found Things: An Exploratory Study of How Users Re-Find Information. Technical Report cs.HC/0310011, Computing Research Repository (CoRR). abs pdf
Capra, R., Narayan, M., Perugini, S., Ramakrishnan, N., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2003). The Staging Transformation Approach to Mixing Initiative. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'03) Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Intelligent Systems. (August 9, 2003, Acapulco, Mexico). pdf
Capra, R. (2003). Mobile Information Re-Finding as a Continuing Dialogue. CHI '03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computer Systems. (April 5-10, 2003, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA), ACM Press, New York, NY, 664-665. acm-dl



2002 Shao, Z., Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2002). Annotations for HTML to VoiceXML Transcoding: Producing Voice WebPages with Usability in Mind. Technical Report cs.HC/0211037, Computing Research Repository (CoRR). pdf
Pérez-Quiñones, M.A., Dannenberg, N., and Capra, R. (2002). Voice Navigation of Structured Web Spaces. Technical Report TR-02-22, Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA abs pdf
Ramakrishnan, N., Capra, R., and Pérez-Quiñones, M.A. (2002). Mixed-Initiative Interaction = Mixed Computation. In P. Thiemann (Ed.), Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation (PEPM'02, January 14-15, 2001, Portland, OR), ACM Press, New York, NY, 119-130. Also appears in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 37(3):119-130, March 2002. acm-dl



2001 Capra, R., Pérez-Quiñones, M., Ramakrishnan, N. (2001). WebContext: Remote Access to Shared Context. Poster seesion in Proceedings of the Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces (PUI'01, November 15-16, 2001, Orlando, FL). acm-dl



1995 Gillett, W., Daues, J., Hanks, L., and Capra, R. (1995). Fragment Collapsing and Splitting While Assembling High-Resolution Restriction Maps. J. Computational Biology, 2(2):185-205, 1995. abs