User preferences in the classification of electronic bookmarks: Implications for a shared system

Using the financial industry as a context, the following study seeks to add ress the issue of the classification of electronic bookmarks in a multi-use r system by investigating what factors influence how individuals develop ca tegories for bookmarks and how they choose to classify bookmarks within tho se organizational categories. An experiment was conducted in which a sample of 15 participants was asked to bookmark and to categorize 60 web sites wi thin Internet Browser folders of their own creation. Based on the data coll ected during this first component of the study, individual, customized ques tionnaires were composed for each participant. Whereas some of the question s within these surveys focused on particular classificatory decisions regar ding specific bookmarks, others looked at how the participant defined, util ized, and structured the category folders that comprised his or her classif ication system. The results presented in this paper focus on issues investi gated in Kwasnik's (Journal of Documentation, 1991, 47, 389-398) study of t he factors that inform how individuals organize their personal, paper-based documents in office environments. Whereas classificatory attributes culled from questionnaire responses nominally resembled those identified by Kwasn ik, it was found that a number of these factors assumed distinctive definit ions in the electronic environment. The present study suggests that the app lication of individual instances of classificatory attributes and the disti nction between Content and Context Attributes emphasized by Kwasnik play a minimal role in the development of a multi-user classification system for b ookmarks.