Connecting Online Search Strategies and Information Needs: A User-Centered, Focus-Labeling Approach.
Lynn Kennedy, Charles Cole, Susan Carter · 1997
When assisting an undergraduate in accessing materials, academic librarians must balance the task of conducting a reference interview with instructing the student on how to use the electronic database. This article presents a method for connecting these tasks via the construction of a search strategy which is wholly dependent on the user's information need. Using this method, the librarian assesses and explicitly labels the undergraduate's information need (using a diagnostic tool based on Kuhlthau's and Taylor's concept of focus), then assigns the most appropriate online search strategy for the satisfaction of this need.