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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and model the process of organizing personal information in digital form in the context of everyday life.Design/methodology/approachA background survey, a diary study and two interviews were conducted with each of the 18 participants, who are information users in social science academic environments. In particular, the personal information organization process (PIOP) model was developed by tracking and analyzing 143 organization events.FindingsThe PIOP model consists of six stages: initiation, identification, temporary categorization, examination/comparison, selection/modification/creation and categorization. This model also shows actions, thoughts and decisions involved in the organization process, and 19 factors that impact the process.Originality/valueThis study introduces a new model that specifically shows the process of organizing personal information. This study advances our understanding of the process and informs the design and development of systems and applications that support personal information management.

Smartphones have now become routinely used tools for people’s everyday life news consumption. This article presents a diary study involving 49 university students in the United States documenting their process of consuming political news via smartphones. Participants reported the information about the news and used 23 pairs of semantic differential scales to evaluate and express their affective reactions to the news. Among 176 political news items submitted, the highest proportion was election news. Significant demographic differences were found in participants’ choices of semantic adjectives. Differences were also found in proportions of election and non-election news submitted. A higher proportion of election news was marked as ‘light’, ‘stale’, ‘shallow’, ‘worthless’, ‘dishonest’ and ‘harmful’ than those labelled for non-election news. Findings provide valuable insights into university students’ political news mobile consumption activities and their assessment and sentiment surrounding election news and general political news during the 2016 US Presidential election campaign.

Google Scholar and academic library discovery systems are both popular resources among academic users for finding scholarly information. By conducting an online survey with 975 users from more than 20 public research universities across the United States, this study comparatively investigates how and why academic users use these two resources. Results show that the ways participants used both resources were similar, and both were perceived as highly accessible and useful . Academic library discovery systems’ perceived comprehensiveness , subjective norm , loyalty , and intended use were higher than Google Scholar, while Google Scholar’s perceived ease of use , system quality , and satisfaction were higher than that of academic library discovery systems.

This study aims to identify different styles of personal digital information categorization based on the mindscape of the categorizers. To collect data, a questionnaire, a diary study, and 2 semistructured interviews were conducted with each of 18 participants. Then a content analysis was used to analyze the data. Based on the analysis of the data, this study identified 3 different types of categorizers: (i) rigid categorizers, (ii) fuzzy categorizers, and (iii) flexible categorizers. This study provides a unique way to understand personal information categorization by showing how it reflects the mindscapes of the categorizers. In particular, this study explains why people organize their personal information differently and have different tendencies in developing and maintaining their organizational structures. The findings provide insights on different ways of categorizing personal information and deepen our knowledge of categorization, personal information management, and information behavior. In practice, understanding different types of personal digital information categorization can make contributions to the development of systems, tools, and applications that support effective personal digital information categorization.

This poster presents preliminary findings from a study that explores the research domain in the field of Knowledge Organization (KO) by comparing the publications contributed by academic researchers and library practitioners. We analyzed 914 articles in three representative KO journals using text mining. The preliminary findings reveal the distinct gaps in research topics between the two groups. Academic researchers contributed more to the realm of theories and fundamental concepts while library practitioners were more interested in specific library practices.

The following study investigates the range of strategies individuals develop to infer and interpret cross-sections of three-dimensional objects. We focus on the identification of mental representations and problem-solving processes made by 11 individuals with the goal of building training applications that integrate the strategies developed by the participants in our study. Our results suggest that although spatial transformation and perspective-taking techniques are useful for visualizing cross-section problems, these visual processes are augmented by analytical thinking. Further, our study shows that participants employ general analytic strategies for extended periods which evolve through practice into a set of progressively more expert strategies. Theoretical implications are discussed and five main findings are recommended for integration into the design of education software that facilitates visual learning and comprehension.

This study investigated how people comprehend three-dimensional 3D visualizations and what properties of such visualizations affect comprehension. Participants were asked to draw the face of a 3D visualization after it was cut in half. We videotaped the participants as they drew, erased, verbalized their thoughts, gestured, and moved about a two-dimensional paper presentation of the 3D visualization. The videorecords were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to generate hypotheses related to comprehension difficulties and visualization properties. Our analysis of the results uncovered three properties that made problem solving more difficult for participants. These were: a cuts that were at an angle in relation to at least one plane of reference, b nonplanar properties of the features contained in the 3D visualizations including curved layers and v-shaped layers, and c mixed combinations of layers. In contrast, a cutting planes that were perpendicular or parallel to the 3D visualization diagram's planes of reference, b internal features that were flat/planar, and c homogeneous layers were easier to comprehend. This research has direct implications for the generation and use of 3D information visualizations in that it suggests design features to include and avoid.

Although people engage in a range of information behaviors, the majority of previous models and empirical research in information behavior tend to focus just on information seeking and use. This panel will discuss the need of extending the territories of information behavior research beyond seeking and use. Panelists will explain their own research studies that explore different forms of information behavior, and introduce emerging models including serendipitous finding of information, information-organizing behavior, and information-creating behavior. Theoretical and methodological issues concerning modeling the new modes of information behavior will be discussed. This panel will involve the audience in identifying under-investigated areas of information behavior and discussing potential impacts of studying various forms of information behavior on individuals, society, organizations, systems & technology, and culture.

Three dimensional visualizations are becoming one of the popular web visualization techniques; however, studies show that for some users, comprehending 3D visualizations is not easy. This research investigated what makes 3D visualizations difficult to understand with the purpose of using this knowledge to develop training to improve visualization literacy. In particular, we focused on the difficulties that individuals have with orientation problems in which they are asked to re-orient themselves to a visual scene from a different viewpoint, something that happens quite often in 3D information visualizations. For our research, we used complex 3D cubes as our experiment problems and sliced the cubes in different ways such that the slices matched the visual orientation a person would naturally take when viewing the slice or required the person to take a different orientation to best determine the features of the slice being made. We then compared performance on recognizing slices that matched a viewer's orientation to that of slices that required a re-orientation. Our results indicated that the problems requiring a reorientation were significantly less accurate.

This paper presents preliminary results from a research project, which investigates how people comprehend the internal structure of 3D visualizations and what specific properties of such visualizations make it more difficult for users to understand the information being presented. Participants were asked to draw the face of the cut plane of various 3D visualizations while verbalizing their thoughts. Data was collected by videotaping participants’ problem solving process. The verbal protocols and participants’ gestures and drawings were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to generate hypotheses related to comprehension difficulties. Our initial analysis of the results found three properties that made problem solving more difficult for participants. These were, cutting planes at oblique angles to the planes of presentation, non-planar properties of the features contained in the 3D figures including curved layers and mixed combination of curved and flat layers. This research has direct implications in Information Science in that it suggests design features to avoid, if possible, in 3D information visualizations.

This study examined personal information items that are difficult to categorize, and how people deal with these information items. For this research study, 18 participants were asked to keep a diary over a week and record diary entries whenever they decided to save or organize any electronic personal information items. Then, two post-diary semi-structured interviews were conducted to ask questions about how they organized their information items and why they made such decisions based on the diary they kept. Interviews were analyzed by using a grounded theory approach. The results show that the information items that are ambiguous or anomalous are difficult to categorize. Participants dealt with ambiguous or anomalous information items by categorizing them into one of their existing categories, placing them into a miscellaneous category or revising the existing organizational structure. Since personal information items that are difficult to categorize directly influence the time and effort needed to organize personal information, it is important to understand what kind of personal information items makes personal information organization difficult. In particular, the results of this research study have practical implications in developing interfaces and applications that help organizing personal information items effectively. This study also helps us further understand categorization, information organizing behavior, and personal information management.

The research was conducted to investigate factors that facilita te users’ finding books by analyzing classifications in public library and bookstore. T his research was based on the assumption that the users’ needs and information behaviors are similar in both public library and bookstore. The main purpose of this study is not to recommend classifying public library collections the way a bookstore does, but to fig ure out what makes the users’ book finding more convenient by analyzing the classifications. To carry out the research, users’ book finding in public library and classifications of public library and bookstore are analyzed. Then, a survey was conducted to investigate users ’ book finding behaviors, degree of convenience in finding books according to different c lassifications and the causes of the convenience. The results of the research showed that boo kstore’s classification was more convenient for the users in finding books.키워드: 분류방식, 도서탐색, 공공도서관, 대형서점, 탐색행태, 탐색용이성classification, finding books, public library, bookstore, book finding behaviors

This paper presents preliminary results from our ongoing research project which explores easy to use and useful facets in accessing consumer health information on the Web. In this pilot study, first, 10 facets were identified by analyzing 10 top ranked health information websites. Then, users' perceptions of easiness and usefulness of each facet in accessing online health information were examined by conducting a survey. The preliminary results revealed that "disease" and "body part" facets are easy to use in accessing online health information, and "disease" and "department" are considered to be effective in accessing online health information.

The purpose of this study is to explore the process of organizing personal information in digital forms from a cognitive sociological perspective. This study also aims to develop a model that explains the personal information organization process. Participants of this study were 18 academics in three different professional age groups. To collect data, a background questionnaire, a diary study, and two semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the participants. After completing the background questionnaire, participants were asked to keep diary entries over a week whenever they decided to save or organize their personal information items in digital forms. Then, the first interview was conducted to ask how and why they organized their information in certain ways. About 2-4 weeks after the first interview, the second interview examined whether participants made any changes to the information items and categories discussed in the first interview. To analyze data, all the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded with a set of categories, which were developed based on the analysis of the literature. Then, the researcher confirmed, modified, or extended the initial categories while analyzing the empirical data. Additionally, each of the diary entries then underwent content analysis. The findings show that the process of organizing personal information consists of six stages: (1) Initiation; (2) Identification; (3) Temporary Categorization; (4) Examination/Comparison; (5) Selection/Modification/Creation; and (6) Categorization. These stages involve different actions, thoughts, and decisions, and various factors influence the process. The findings indicate that the organizing process is heavily influenced by participants’ social environments. In this study, the personal information organization process (PIOP) model, which holistically shows the ranges of behaviors that are involved during the personal information organization process, has been developed. This study deepens our understanding about people’s information organization process by providing an integrated view of the process. In particular, by providing an explanation of the social aspects of personal information organization, this study makes a unique contribution to the field. This study also contributes to the development and design of various personal information devices, interfaces, and applications that support individuals’ organization of their information.