Towards Better Support for Exploratory Search through an Investigation of Notes-to-self and Notes-to-share

Recently, there has been interest in integrating information retrieval systems more closely with users' knowledge development processes, especially to support exploratory search. In this work, we investigated how people organize and structure information they discover during exploratory searches. In a lab study, we asked 24 participants to take hand-written notes they could use in the future while they were completing an exploratory search. We then asked participants to organize their findings to share with someone else who wants to explore the topic. Finally, we conducted post-session interviews to gain insights into the types of information saved and how participants organized the information they found. In our qualitative analysis of the notes and interviews, we found that the notes included background information about the topic, key concepts, specific details, useful information sources, and information to help with the broader work task. Notes were primarily structured in lists, and reflected a combination of linear note-taking strategies and grouping by information source or topical themes. Participants changed the content and structure of the shared notes to make them easier to understand and to provide a more thorough overview of the topic. Our findings have implications for the design of search tools to help current searchers organize, structure, and synthesize information and to help future searchers engaged in similar information seeking tasks.