Information Seeking in Electronic Environments (Cambridge Series on Human-Computer Interaction) [Paperback]

Gary Marchionini (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a thought-provoking and in-depth examination of information seeking in electronic environments....a worthwhile purchase for anyone interested in an in-depth review and study of information seeking behaviors and how they have changed in, and because of, electronic environments. It would be an excellent auxiliary textbook for any course concerned with human-computer interaction in library science or computer science." Kathleen Fleming, Resource Sharing and Information Networks

"The book largely succeeds in its purposes. It is well written and makes good use of the literature...The structure of the book and the flow of ideas are logical and coherent, and researchers and practitioners in information retrieval will find it useful...this book provides a useful and timely contribution to the literature." S. Smithson, Computing Reviews

"...a welcome and needed addition to the information science literature...a well-written text on information seeking that is easily accessible by a broad audience...a great place to start building understanding of the information seeking process." Janette R. Hill, Journal of the American Society for Information Science

"Very timely...a requirement for every undergraduate computer science and information science library." J. Beidler, Choice

"Marchionini's book is interesting and thought provoking....It is very likely to become a text for library and information sciences seminars in information retrieval; it should be read by those in academic health sciences center libraries and hospital libraries who have responsibility for (or a personal interest in) education for information management and information retrieval from or in electronic settings." Ellen Gay Detlefsen, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association

"This book is recommended reading for graduate students in library information science as well as researchers and parctitioners. It provides a valuable, thoughful discussion of an important topic for all those concerened with developing information systems for addressing information seeking rather than information retrieval." Carol C, Kuhlthau, The Library Quarterly

"This book achieves some understanding of the differences in the way people search for information and the way various searching software facilitates this....is academically written....is recommended for those designing search software, and will be useful, though not instructive, for academic libraries and those who instruct clients in the process of seeking information in electronic environments." Public Library Quarterly

Product Description

In the computer age, it is essential for individuals to develop skills and strategies for manipulating, storing, and retrieving electronic information. This book considers how electronic technologies have changed these skills and strategies and augmented the fundamental human activity of information seeking. Writing from the point of view of the user rather than the computer, the author makes a case for creating new interface designs that allow information seekers to choose what strategy to apply according to their immediate needs. Such systems may be designed by providing information seekers with alternative interface mechanisms for displaying and manipulating multiple levels of representation for information objects. This book is multidisciplinary in approach and aims to bridge the perspectives of information science, computer science and education. It will be essential reading for researchers and graduate students in these fields.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521586747
• ISBN-13: 978-0521586740
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #507,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #30 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Library & Information Science > Automation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for Information Science students and researchers, August 5, 2009

By	Bhuva Narayan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Information Seeking in Electronic Environments (Cambridge Series on Human-Computer Interaction) (Paperback)

This is a very well-explicated book on humans' information-seeking strategies. Dr. Marchionini gives a very comprehensive view of this process that includes many enlightening ideas on how our strategies have co-evolved with the progress of information systems, and how they are interleaved with learning and other cognitive processes. I am a researcher in this field and I find this book extremely valuable as the author explains everything in jargon-free language with examples to support his arguments. Although this book was published in 1995, it is still very relevant now in 2009. I would recommend that the author revise the book in order to expand it and include some of the new social networking technologies that have had a significant impact on information-seeking in electronic environments.