Measuring Online information seeking context, part 2: Findings and discussion

Context is one of the most important concepts in information seeking and retrieval research. However, the challenges of studying context are great; thus, it is more common for researchers to use context as a post hoc explanatory factor, rather than as a concept that drives inquiry. The purpose of this study was to develop a method for collecting data about information seeking context in natural online environments, and identify which aspects of context should be considered when studying online information seeking. The study is reported in two parts. In this, the second part, results and implications of this research are presented. Part 1 (Kelly, 2006) discussed previous literature on information seeking context and behavior, situated the current study within this literature, and described the naturalistic, longitudinal research design that was used to examine and measure the online information seeking context of seven users during a 14-week period. Results provide support for the value of the method in studying online information seeking context, the relative importance of various measures of context, how these measures change over time, and, finally, the relationship between these measures. In particular, results demonstrate significant differences in distributions of usefulness ratings according to task and topic.