Actor

            Currency (measure of costs and benefits)

            Constraints (limiting behaviour)

            Strategy (range of available options)

            Currency + Strategy – predicts resources

Foraging – hunting + gathering

-       Range – highly organised and goal directed – ongoing ad-hoc background activity

Sandstrom – 1^st to apply theory using co-citation analysis; resource maps on cluster analysis of co-citation patterns; can be applied to other contexts and other methods

Costs

search costs – time spent seeking usable info – directed or background monitoring

handling costs – time to retrieve, read and process item

Resources (citations, searching research shit)

            Core – specialization

Peripheral – more labour intensive, more handling time because unfamiliar – high cost but maybe high benefit (new ideas)

Strategies –

            Specialists – focus on high density patch via

                        Informal communication

                        Routine monitoring

                        Sources in personal collection (not relevant)

            Generalists – wide variety of patches, deliberate searching and labour intensive, temporary access to materials rather than ownership (not relevant)

Resource patches – info sources – friends

Currency – redefined on context

Info space from user’s point of view

Cost / benefit – performing activities / info value

Info Scent – user’s perception of cost-benefit based on peripheral cues (Chi et. al., 2001)

Interplay between info environment, people’s perception of environment, strategies to navigate within the space.

To avoid falling into pitfalls (assuming behaviour is classically rational)

            Describe possibilities of a niche

            Different intervening factors (tech and friends) (Pirolli & Card, 1995)

            Combine with other methodological approaches (Wasserman & Faust, 1994)

            Behaviour – Movement – directed + interrupted + undirected (serendipity)

            Motivation – Purpose – support + incidental

            Cognition – Knowledge – location + content + high/low

            Resource – Focus – structured + content of resource scanned

Process (4 more subdimensions) –

            Behaviour – Scanning – identifying, selecting, examining

            Motivation – Goal – open-endedness to criteria of valid info acquisition

            Cognition – Object – what patron seeks or expects while scanning a resource

            Resource – Form – series of info items under consideration

9 patterns or themes of browsing –

            Specific

                        Non-browsing

                        Situational – examining unknown items while locating specific item (items with common characteristics)

                        Opportunistic – scanning other items “incidental to og purpose)

            Common

                        Systematic

                        Evaluative

                        Focus

            Up-to-date

                        Monitoring

            Finding out

                        Indicative

                        Prepatory – learning something not specified

            Goal-free

                        Invitational – scanning to satisfy intrinsic motivation with no goal

5 themes from 9 patterns –

            Looking for specific item (situational + opportunistic)

            Looking for something with common characteristics (systematic + evaluative + focus)

            Keeping up-to date (monitoring)

            Learning or finding out (indicative + prepatory)

Goal-free (invitational)

Consequences

            Accidental findings

            Modifying the info need

            Learning

            Finding desired info

            Satisfying curiosity

            Keeping updated

            Feeling relaxed, recreation

            Gathering info

            Not finding info

Elements in taxonomy of browsing –

            Scanning

                        Looking for

                        Identifying

                        Selecting

                        Examining

            Resource

                        Meta-info

                        Object (whole)

                        Object (part)

                        Info

            Goal

                        Locate

                        Evaluate

                        Keep up

                        Learn

                        Satisfy curiosity

                        Be entertained

            Object

                        Specific item

                        Common item

                        Defined location

                        General

                        None

2 most important influencing factors –

            Nature of browser’s goal

            Specificity of object sought

Chang’s work suggests that info providers should arrange physical layout and displays in a way that encourages both successful and enjoyable browsing