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Studying Collaborative Information Seeking: Experiences with Three Methods

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Collaborative Information Seeking

Part of the book series: Computer Supported Cooperative Work ((CSCW))

Abstract

Collaborative information seeking (CIS) has lately produced interesting empirical studies, describing CIS in real-life settings. While these studies explore how and why CIS manifests itself in different domains, discussions about how to study CIS have been scarce. The research area of CIS may, however, benefit from a discussion of methodological issues. This chapter describes the application of three methods for collecting and analyzing data in three CIS studies. The three methods are Multidimensional Exploration, used in a CIS study of students’ information behavior during a group assignment; Task-structured Observation, used in a CIS study of patent engineers; and Condensed Observation, used in a CIS study of information-systems development. The three methods are presented in the context of the studies for which they were devised, and the experiences gained using the methods are discussed. The chapter shows that different methods can be used for collecting and analyzing data about CIS incidents. Two of the methods focused on tasks and events in work settings, while the third was applied in an educational setting. Commonalities and differences among the methods are discussed to inform decisions about their applicability in future CIS studies and, more generally, to foster methodological discussions in CIS research.

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Notes

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    PRV, Stockholm, Sweden, http://www.prv.se

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    Log information was handled in such a way that it did not reveal any unauthorized information.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal School of Library and Information Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jette Hyldegård & Morten Hertzum

  2. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Preben Hansen

Authors
  1. Jette Hyldegård
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  2. Morten Hertzum
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  3. Preben Hansen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jette Hyldegård .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden

    Preben Hansen

  2. Rutgers University, School of Communication & Information, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Chirag Shah

  3. GESIS - Leibniz-Institut for Social Sciences, Department of Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany

    Claus-Peter Klas

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Hyldegård, J., Hertzum, M., Hansen, P. (2015). Studying Collaborative Information Seeking: Experiences with Three Methods. In: Hansen, P., Shah, C., Klas, CP. (eds) Collaborative Information Seeking. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18541-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18988-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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