Introduction: It has been suggested that cognitive characteristics may affect search. This study investigated how decoding abilities, short-term memory capacity and rapid automatised naming skills relate to query formulation. Method: A total of twenty dyslexic participants and twenty non-dyslexic controls completed four standardised cognitive…

Introduction: Few studies document the information searching behaviour of users with cognitive impairments. This paper therefore addresses the effect of dyslexia on information searching in a database with no tolerance for spelling errors and no query-building aids. The purpose was to identify effective search interface design guidelines that…

Introduction: This study explores the extent to which an institutional repository makes papers available and accessible on the open Web by using 170 journal articles housed in DigiNole Commons, the institutional repository at Florida State University. Method: To analyse the repository's impact on availability and accessibility, we conducted…

Introduction: Use of the Internet for open Web searches is common among university students in academic learning tasks. The tools used by students to find relevant information for online assessment tasks were investigated and their information seeking behaviour was documented to explore the impact on assessment design. Method: A mixed methods…

Introduction: This study aims to investigate the selection of information sources and to identify factors associated with the resource selection of undergraduate students for academic search tasks. Also, user perceptions of some factors, such as credibility, usefulness, accessibility and familiarity, were examined to classify resources by their…

Introduction: The paper presents original research designed to explore and compare selected aspects of the information seeking behaviour of mathematicians (scientists and students) on the Internet. Method: The data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed at the end of 2011 and in January 2012. Twenty-nine professional mathematicians and…

Introduction: Members of the millennial generation (born after 1982) have come of age in a society infused with technology and information. It is unclear how they determine the validity of information gathered, or whether or not validity is even a concern. Previous information search models based on mediated searches with different age groups may…

Introduction: The study seeks to answer two questions: How do university students learn to use correct strategies to conduct scholarly information searches without instructions? and, What are the differences in learning mechanisms between users at different cognitive levels? Method: Two groups of users, thirteen first year undergraduate students…

Introduction: This study investigated the effect of cognitive styles on users' information-seeking task performance using a knowledge domain information visualization system called CiteSpace. Method: Sixteen graduate students participated in a user experiment. Each completed an extended cognitive style analysis wholistic-analytic test (the…

Introduction: This paper argues for increased research consideration of the conceptual overlap between information seeking and information literacy, and for scholarly attention to theory-based empirical research that has potential value to practitioners. Method: The paper reviews information seeking and information literacy research, and…

Introduction: This study reports the application of Ellis's behavioural model to the information seeking behaviour of Jewish studies scholars. Method: A qualitative study in which twenty-five scholars from four universities in Israel were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide in which participants were encouraged to talk about…

Introduction: Explores the complexity of online information use for learning in the culturally-diverse, information and communication technologies-intensive, higher education context. It presents a Model of responses and influences in online information use for learning, which aims to increase awareness of the complexity of online information use…

This paper reports the results of two empirical studies which explored the information seeking behaviour of engineering and law students in Ireland. Findings reveal similar patterns in the information seeking behaviour between students studying to become professionals and information seeking patterns of these groups identified in the Leckie et al.…

Introduction: We analyse how academic status and discipline influence the major search methods used by university academic staff for obtaining electronic articles for teaching, research and keeping up to date in their field. Method: The data consist of a nationwide Web-survey of the end-users of FinELib, The Finnish National Electronic Library.…

Introduction: The strategies that people use to browse Websites are difficult to analyse and understand: quantitative data can lack information about what a user actually intends to do, while qualitative data tends to be localised and is impractical to gather for large samples. Method: This paper describes a novel approach that combines data from…