Information Behaviour That Keeps Found Things Found

This paper reports on a study that the researchers call: ‘Keeping found things found on the Web’ or ‘KFTF’. The research focuses on the classic problem of ensuring that once a useful information source or channel has been located, it can be found again when it is needed. To achieve this goal, individuals engage in information behaviour that the research team refers to as keeping and re-finding. The research study observed both types of information behaviour. To study keeping, the researchers designed an observational study to record what people do in their offices when they are searching or browsing the Web and they find information they want to keep for re-use. This behaviour was observed and then analysed for its underlying purpose in the first phase of the KFTF study (the keeping study). In the second phase of the study (the re-finding study), the researchers designed a delayed recall observation which required participants to re-find information on the Web that they had located during the observations of phase 1. This delayed recall study focused upon observations of re-finding information. Finally, the researchers conducted a survey to validate and augment the data from the keeping study. Two hundred and fourteen individuals participated in the survey.