Archives search as a complex sensemaking task
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31iConf64269Keywords:
Sensemaking, Archives search, Case studyAbstract
Introduction. This study investigated scholar’s behavior in archival institutions to develop more effective search tools for searching paper-based materials in archival institutions.
Method. The scholar worked in the U.S. National Archives and was asked to keep a detailed diary of their actions and decisions. The principal analysis was conducted based on this diary.
Analysis. In an open coding process, the parts of the diary relevant to our research were identified and assigned an initial code. These codes were refined by repeating the process twice, merging and splitting codes as necessary.
Results. Six codes - ‘Set a Goal’, ‘Choose a Strategy’, ‘Prioritising’, ‘Select Boxes’, ‘Examine Documents’ and ‘update mental model’ - were identified. These represent an iterative, hierarchically structured sensemaking process in which changes to plans were based not only on what was found, but also on what was learned about what existed to be found.
Conclusion(s). This study shows an example of how complex actions and decisions occur when searching physical materials. It could help in understanding what kinds of tools could be developed to support such activities.
References
Athukorala, K., Glowacka, D., Jacucci, G., Oulasvirta, A., & Vreeken, J. (2015). Is Exploratory Search Different? A comparison of information search behavior for exploratory and lookup tasks. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(11), 2635–2651.
Dervin, B. (1998). Sense-making theory and practice: An overview of user interests in knowledge seeking and use. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2(2), 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673279810249369
Duff, W. & Fox, A. (2006). You're a guide rather than an expert: Archival reference from an archivist's point of view. Journal of the Society of Archivists, 27(2), 129-153.
Duff, W. M. & Johnson, C.A. (2002). Accidentally Found on Purpose: Information-seeking behavior of historians in archives. The Library Quarterly, 72(4), 472–496.
Mirel, B. (1996). Contextual inquiry and the representation of tasks. ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation, 20(1), 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1145/227614.227616
National Archives. (2026). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/
National Archives. (2018). About the National Archives of the United States. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/1-about-archives.html
Russell, D. M., Stefik, M. J., Pirolli, P., & Card, S. K. (1993). The Cost Structure of Sensemaking. Proceedings of the INTERACT ‘93 and CHI ‘93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 269–276. https://doi.org/10.1145/169059.169209
Schellenberg, T.R. (2003). The Management of Archives, Society of American Archivists.
Schmidt, L. (2016), Using Archives: A guide to effective research. Society of American Archivists. https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives
Suzuki, T., Oard, D., Ishita, E., & Tomiura, Y. (2023). Automatically Detecting References from the Scholarly Literature to Records in Archives. ICADL 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 14458. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8088-8_9
Wiedeman, G. (2019). The Historical Hazards of Finding Aids. The American Archivist, 82(2), 381–420. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc-82-02-20
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Emi Ishita , Tokinori Suzuki , Douglas W. Oard , Yoichi Tomiura
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
