INFORMATION-SEEKING AND QUERY FORMULATION - SEARCHING BEHAVIOR IN AN ONLINE CATALOG

In this paper, researches on information seeking behavior in a documen t retrieval system, especially an online catalog are reviewed. The foc us of the review is query formulation in information seeking process. The introduction of an online catalog early in the 1980s in the USA re vealed the demand for subject searching of users. As a result, the fre quency of subject searching in an online catalog increased in comparis on with that of a card catalog. But subject searching caused many prob lems which were related to the selection of search terms, that is quer y formulation. So many enhancements and improvements of subject search ing have been proposed. Some of them are based on information retrieva l researches. Recently, researches on information seeking behavior in a document retrieval system using the theories and the methodologies o f cognitive science appeared. These researches revealed the cognitive process of information seeking and query formulation. The findings imp lies a new typed user-centered document retrieval system. The user-cen tered document retrieval system should be explored and designed, apart from the constraints of current document retrieval system. The applic ation of the theories and the methodologies of cognitive science to th e research on information seeking behavior of users is useful in explo ring user-centered retrieval system.