Bundles in the wild: Managing information to solve problems and maintain situation awareness

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES HOW EXPERTS CREATE and use bundles-organized, highly selective collections of information-to help solve problems and maintain s ituation awareness. In field observations of expert clinicians caring for p atients in critical care units, bundles appear to be a widely used means of managing information to support diverse, complex, and often simultaneous t asks. They may be especially useful in settings that are characterized by h igh uncertainty, low predictability, frequent interruptions, and potentiall y grave outcomes; where time and attention are highly constrained; and wher e inter-disciplinary teamwork is essential. Reports of analogous observatio ns from other domains such as aviation and air traffic control suggest that bundles may be a common information management tool for solving problems a nd maintaining situation awareness. In an age of digital libraries, compute r-based tools for creating and managing bundles may be useful as the inform ation in these settings is increasingly represented in digital collections that are larger more complex, more diverse, and potentially more difficult to explore and manipulate.