As Information Retrieval (IR) has evolved, it has become a highly interactive process, rooted in cognitive and situational contexts. Consequently the traditional cybernetic-based IR model does not suffice for interactive IR or the human approach to IR. Reviews different views of feedback in IR and their relationship to cybernetic and social…

After surveying the history and current status of online database searching, this report offers a timeline describing four stages of possible developments for online systems. In the first stage, an expert interface assists CD-ROM-based searching by offering advice about search strategies. Advantages are that search logic can be refined with the…

Reports results from a study exploring the information retrieval (IR) and types of interactive feedback during mediated IR. Five types of interactive feedback were identified, extending the interactive IR model to include relevance, magnitude, and strategy interactive feedback. Implications for further research investigating the nature and models…

Computer mediated communication (CMC) tends to erase power structures because such communication somehow undermines or escapes discursive limits. Online discussions seem to promote rhetorical experimentation on the part of the participants. Finding a way to explain disparities between electronic discussion and oral discussion has proven difficult.…