INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK AND THE INFORMATION SEARCH PROCESS - A COMPARISON OF MANUAL AND ONLINE SEARCHING

Library users' research interests and needs are becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. This type of research presents searchers with obsta cles that differ from disciplinary research. Using the information sea rch process (ISP) developed by Carol C. Kuhlthau as a theoretical mode l, this study compares the impact of manual and online search methods on the interdisciplinary search task in terms of the relevance of retr ieved items, user effort, user satisfaction, user confidence and futur e use. This comparative investigation examines two senior-level journa lism classes researching judicial decisions related to the mass media. One class used printed legal reference sources; the other class used LEXIS, a full-text legal database. The results of this study indicate that online search methods are more effective than manual search metho ds when users are working outside their areas of specialization.