Information Needs and Information Seeking:
Challenges and Opportunities

• With the spread of access to electronic information, many databases are no longer searched by well-defined groups of users. The same source of information can now serve a large variety of users. For example, Medline, a database designed for physi cians, is searched by non-professional users in public and academic libraries. But because searching behavior and interactions are easier to study than ever before, it is possible now to study factors of information needs, whether or not they are typical of a certain user group. One may discover, for example, that some users would rather not see information about a drug unless it is already available in pharmacies. Without having to identify the group of users that has this requirement, each article abo ut a drug could be "indexed" with the drug status to support filtering/ranking of retrieval from Medline.

• Much of the information on the network is posted with no selection or filtering; everyone (with the means to do so) can post documents in the digital library. More users than before are likely to be authors as well. This situation, while a challe nge, creates a unique opportunity for users to participate in system design. For example, programs that include software and index languages can be developed to train authors/users to index their own documents and to receive their feedback to support the development of useful index languages. We have very little experience with users as creators of information and as active participants in the design of retrieval mechanisms. Studies of these new phenomena will have direct impact on our understanding of information needs.