Award Abstract # 0844947
CAREER: Collaborative Information Behavior: Exploring and Supporting Collaboration during Information Seeking and Retrieval Activities

NSF Org: IIS
Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
Recipient: THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: February 13, 2009
Latest Amendment Date: February 11, 2013
Award Number: 0844947
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Ephraim Glinert
IIS
 Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: February 1, 2009
End Date: January 31, 2016 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $535,475.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $551,475.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2009 = $76,772.00
FY 2010 = $114,553.00

FY 2011 = $122,279.00

FY 2012 = $116,315.00

FY 2013 = $121,556.00
History of Investigator:
  • Madhu Reddy (Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
201 OLD MAIN
UNIVERSITY PARK
PA  US  16802-1503
(814)865-1372
Sponsor Congressional District: 15
Primary Place of Performance: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
201 OLD MAIN
UNIVERSITY PARK
PA  US  16802-1503
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
15
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): NPM2J7MSCF61
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): HCC-Human-Centered Computing
Primary Program Source: 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1045, 1187, 7367, 9215, 9251, HPCC
Program Element Code(s): 736700
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

With the advent and continuing spread of the Internet and the World-Wide Web, information resources are becoming more and more widely available. As people in all walks of life try to use these resources to find answers to questions about issues ranging from finance to personal health, there is a general recognition that it is very difficult for individuals to find relevant information. One approach to dealing with this problem is to combine the abilities and experiences of multiple information seekers. Future information retrieval systems will therefore have to focus not only on how individuals can access and search the volumes of available information, but also on how they can collaborate with each other to find the most relevant information that meets their needs. The mounting evidence that collaborative information behavior (CIB) plays an important role in organizational work notwithstanding, most information retrieval systems (and their underlying conceptualizations of information behavior) still adopt the individual user's perspective. Focusing solely on individual information behavior has led to processes and technologies that often constrain CIB, which can be acutely problematic in settings where teams and team work are important. The PI argues that while individual information behavior cannot be ignored, we must strive to develop processes that equally support CIB, because effective integration of information retrieval technology into collaborative environments requires us to incorporate not eliminate collaboration in these technologies. His goal in this project is to address our current inability to do that, by improving our theoretical understanding of the CIB process and by advancing the design of information retrieval systems as well, in the hope of thereby alleviating the impediments to team success in critical domains. To these ends, the PI will investigate CIB in team settings within the healthcare and education domains. He will develop a model of CIB, design and implement a collaborative information retrieval prototype system, and conduct both laboratory and field evaluations of it. Project outcomes will include a better understanding of how and why people collaborate when searching for information, and how to design technologies that effectively support that collaboration.

Broader Impacts: This research will lead to the development of new processes and technologies that will allow people to share their knowledge, techniques, and results with each other in order to quickly and effectively meet their information needs.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Eikey, E.Reddy, M.Kuziemsky, C. "Examining the Role of Collaboration in Studies of Health Information Technologies in Biomedical Informatics Research: A Systematic Review of 25 Years of Research" Journal of Biomedical Informatics , v.57 , 2015
Gao, Y*, Reddy, M, and B. Jansen "Shop Together, Search Together: Collaborative E-commerce" In Proc of CHI?16 Extended Abstracts , 2015
Karunakaran, A. Reddy, M.Spence, P. "Towards a Model of Collaborative Information Behavior in Organizations" Journal of American Society for Information Science and Technology , v.64 , 2013 , p.24375
McNeese, N. Reddy, M. "Concept Mapping as a Methodology to Develop Insights on Cognition during Collaborative Information Seeking" Proc. of 2015 International Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES 2015) , 2015
McNeese, N.Reddy, M "Articulating and Understanding the Development of a Team Mental Model in a Distributed Medium" Proc. of 2015 International Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES 2015) , 2015
McNeese, N.Reddy, M. "The Role of Team Cognition in Collaborative Information Seeking" Journal of the Association for Information Sciences and Technology , 2015
Spence, P.R. and Reddy, M. "Beyond Expertise Seeking: A Field Study of the Informal Knowledge Practices of Healthcare IT Teams" Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Work , 2011 , p.1 10.1007/s10606-011-9135-1

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