REGIS Researchers - Informaatiotutkimuksen laitos/TaY

The purpose of the study is to investigate searching behavior of journalists. The study aims to find out how newspaper journalists conduct searches from databases (text archive) when writing news and articles. It is important to study information retrieval by journalists in the context of daily work, journalistic practice. From that point of view, the study seeks to find out what the impact of the new technology on the journalistic work is. The content of the term "new technology" is quite broad, including online databases, CD-ROM files, e-mail, Internet resources etc. I am interested in in-house databases because in the Finnish press it is obvious that in the near future the utilization of the new methods in information gathering will increase, starting from the use of in-house databases.

Using the Internet for Non-work Information Seeking

The goal of this research is to find out for which purposes citizens use Internet in their everyday life. The focus of this research is in the non-work information seeking and in those reasons why people use Internet and which are the reasons for non-use. One of the aims is to explain in what kind of situations people prefer Internet and how does their lifestyle and social background effect to information seeking process. Which are the differences in using the Internet for non-work information seeking between academically educated people and non-academic people? Most of the data is qualitative and 50 people will be interviewed for this study; 25 of them are non-academical from the background and 25 of them have at least bachelor's degree.

Information Behaviour in Live-Action Role-Playing Environments

The purpose of this study is to analyze information behaviour, especially information seeking and use, in the pseudo-autonomous temporary realities created by structured pretence play. The main focus of research is on the unique information behaviour inherent in the nature of live-action role-playing games (larps). As larps contain information sources that are easily accessed, yet directly hostile to the immersive play-experience itself, new patterns of information seeking and use are created. This study will extract those patterns and define their potential correspondences with theories of role-playing behavior, for the purpose of furthering understanding on the effect that situational and cultural factors have on information behavior. The primary methods are qualitative, and include interviews on 51 experienced and 9 inexperienced larp participants from several gaming cultures.

Information seeking, sharing and use of genealogists

The project focuses on genealogists information behaviour; how they seek information, how they share information in communities and how they use the knowledge they have found. Attempts will be made to find out how genealogists judge and prioritise information sources and channels such as other genealogists, relatives, web sources (databases), libraries and archives. Attention will also be paid to the concept of serious leisure and everyday life information behaviour. The empirical data will gathered by theme interviews focusing on genealogist communities and web discussing groups. Diane Sonnenwalds "information horizons" -method is used to indicate the ways in which information sources and channels are judged and prioritised among hobbyist genealogist. Besides I am going to make a small usability test to find out how the database of historical parish records maintained by Finnish Society of Genealogy, will serve genealogist. Findings received from these studies may contribute to deeper understanding of the term serious leisure andeveryday life information practices and perhaps enables to improve database usability.

The Outcomes of Spiritual Information

This research project analyses the outcomes (uses, effects and other consequences) of spiritual information. The purposes of the undertaking are to 1) explore and explain the outcomes of spiritual information in all areas of human life, 2) develop a general model of information outcomes, and 3) contribute to the methodology of studying outcomes of information. The following means of data collection will be used:

For more information about the study, please see the research plan at http://www.uta.fi/~csjakar/kari2007.pdf .

The construction of everyday information practices

The project focuses on the ways in which people construct their daily information worlds, more specifically, their "information source horizons" that indicate the ways in which information sources and channels are perceived to be accessible and usable in everyday contexts. Particular attention will be devoted to the actor-defined relevance criteria used by people. Attempts will be made to find out by which self-generated criteria people select, judge and prioritise information sources and channels such as friends, television programmes, Web pages and public libraries. Attention will also be paid to ways in which the experiences of information overload affect the source preferences and relevance judgments. Findings received from these studies contributes to the deeper understanding of the changes characteristic of everyday life information practices. The empirical data will gathered by theme interviews focusing on groups such as citizen activists interested in environmental issues, the unemployed people and consumers.

Web searching at work

Public access into various Web resources has made it possible to retrieve and seek information directly at post. The trend is to guide the end users to utilize formal Web resources by themselves. The usability and accessibility of formal sources has became critical issues that need to be solved. It is important to understand that - besides the interface designing - usability also means the ways how easily the end user can adapt the structure and contents of information sources.

The goal of Serola's PhD study is to examine the use of organised Web resources in professions where Internet is used regularly for seeking information. The target is to find out the type of task related information needs, which can be satisfied only or more easily through Web than through other channels. Moreover the purpose is to find out how the searchers utilize different sources and search strategies when they try to retrieve useful information on the Internet. Also it is tried to find out how the informants use to manage net information for re-use. By understanding the user's ways to construct their view on net it is possible to develop either new or already existing tools so that they may serve the user's needs more effectively.

Improving Support to Knowledge Creation by Adapting the Information Retrieval Information according to a Sense-Making Situational User Modelling

The research is about improving knowledge workers intellectual access to inputs (information resources, people) by designing and applying a different kind of user modelling to their information retrieval interaction.

The user modelling process and system explored by this research is designed with basis on knowledge workers sense-making practices (Dervin´s Sense-Making Methodology) within knowledge creating activities, in the business context (in knowledge-intensive organisations). The focus of the research is on the knowledge about users (i.e. on the user model and on the user modelling) that should drive and support how inputs can be selected in a information retrieval interaction. The objective is primarily to move adaptivity to be based on a kind of knowledge about users that is powerful in explaining how people differ in their informing.

This research started in 2005. Interviews were carried out in 2007. The data was collected by individual in-depth interviews designed according to Sense-Making Methodology. The results will reveal, from a user-centred perspective, how the intellectual access to information in knowledge creation activities can be improved by having inputs retrieved according to knowledge workers sense-making practices. The research will result on the design of a sense-making-situational user modelling system that supports adaptive information retrieval in knowledge-intensive-creation activities within the business context (knowledge-intensive organisations).

The results will be reported in a Ph. D. thesis and in international publications. The supervisors are Prof. Pertti Vakkari, Prof. Reijo Savolainen and Prof. Brenda Dervin.

This Ph.D. research is funded by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), an institution of the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

Scholarly communities: information and collaboration practices

Dr. Talja's work focuses on in the interaction between new technologies and scholarly communities' information and collaboration practices. She is interested in theories, approaches, and empirical studies related to the use and shaping of ICTs in scholarly communities.
More information http://www.uta.fi/~lisaka/

Information needs and information seeking behaviour of scientists

The study aims at adding knowledge of the information behaviour of scientists from two perspectives: first, the focus is placed on identifying scientists' information needs and indicating how their information needs are satisfied in general; second, the focus is placed on exploring scientists' information seeking behaviour after the advent of the Internet in particular. Major research questions are: What kind of information sources do scientists use for their research? Which criteria are important in the selection of information sources? What kind of barriers exist in accessing needed information? Using questionnaire survey and theme interviews data are collected from the academic and research staff at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Expected outcomes include: further developed model of information seeking behaviour of scientists, and recommendations to develop further services at Tallinn University of Technology Library in order to meet scientists' information needs in a more accurate manner.

REGIS - Researchers

Searching Behavior of Journalists: Information Retrieval in the Newsroom