Finding information, especially accurate, timely, and relevant information, is increasingly important in nearly all human endeavors. Accordingly, numerous studies have examined the processes information seekers employ, as well as the strategies information providers use to meet their needs. Most models emphasize satisfaction or closure as the criterion for successful completion of an information search; thus the emphasis is on solving a specific problem. But often, information seeking is part of some larger process, which is invisible to the information provider and often unclear even to the seeker. Successful search may lead not so much to eliminating an existing, well-defined problem, as to delineating a new problem within a complex, ill-defined space. This paper examines information seeking from an inquiry, or problem-based perspective, and argues that the fields of information seeking and problem-based learning can benefit from closer dialogue.

1. Relation between information-seeking and problem-solving
2. Tools for inquiry
3. Problem-solving and learning
4. Inquiry-based design
5. Theory of inquiry
6. Conclusion

• Techniques for problem solving and case-based learning often ignore the information needs

• information-seeking and problem-solving activities are inherently neither weak nor strong
• influenced by the particular scientific problem, the knowledge of individual scientists, the stage of research
• information-seeking varies accordingly

—Carole Palmer, Melissa Cragin, Tim Hogan, in press

• comparative case studies school libraries in Australia & the US
• importance of the information ecology
• ⇒ indigenous understandings of "legitimate literacies" and the constructed definition of "information literacy"

—Cushla Kapitzke, Bertram C. Bruce, Sharon Comstock

One student reported that the first step is to use Wikipedia to contextualize a problem. But there is 'the credibility problem,' because he was instructed that the web is not a valid source...some teachers do not accept anything 'electronic,' so require 'only books'...the student admitted checking out a book that appeared to meet the topic and citing it, despite it never improving his understanding.

What literacies are legitimate in the sociotechnical environment of the high school library? Is a database of magazine articles more credible because it has been purchased and, therefore, presumably vetted? What is the validity of open source information avenues that compete with "traditional" media? Or, is the student demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of "literacy, which solves an information problem?

—Sharon Comstock, field notes

When asked how he finds information for non-school related subjects, the student said 'Wikis,' because 'they have links I can follow to find out more, and it's free' ...if there were not entries in a topic...'Then I Google: first five pages and that's it. The rest is going to be crap. If it's not in the first five, it's useless.' When asked why Google and not other search engines, he responded, 'It's the best. The others are dumb or have a ton of ads. It's the iPod of search engines!'

The "iPod of search engines" phrase disturbed the librarians. While the student was referring to his informal learning searches, the online surveys concur. Despite the bibliographic instruction sheets stating not to use Google or Yahoo, these are the most consulted by students...physical books are consulted as a last resort.

—Sharon Comstock, field notes

Information literacy evolves in the course of realizing specific work-related tasks and mundane activities, which usually involve a complex system of social relationships, sociotechnical configurations, and work organization.

From the perspective of a situated understanding of learning and learning requirements, information skills cannot be taught independently of the knowledge domains, organizations, and practical tasks in which these skills are used.

—Kimmo Tuominen, Reijo Savolainen, Sanna Talja, 2005

Web Searching, Information Literacy and Learning

• clarify the interplay of information literacy and learning in the Web-dominated information environment
• intensify the flowering of information literacy as a part of basic education

—Eero Sormunen, et al.

• √  diverse disciplines
• X  about itself (the "learning community")
• X  about its relation to the communities in which it participates
• X  how to inquire within and beyond its walls

• engage undergraduates in research
• 50 courses in various disciplines
• build a repository of knowledge from the inside
• use Inquiry Units for ethnographies
• participatory design

—Nancy Abelmann, Peter Mortensen

• Michael Cozza, The Introduction of a Neophyte into Gaming Culture
• Kaitlin Sulkowski, A Look into the Social Phenomenon of Facebook
• Aly Marchetti, The Daniels Street ATM on Wednesday Nights
• Jonathan Wassell, The Life of the Off-Campus Student
• Christina Miceli and Kari Schmehil, Two Tattoo Parlors
• Jennifer Mull, Unethical Treatment of Volunteers
• Amy Franco, Technology in the Illini Union Vending Room
• Ben Krop, Justin Meyer, and Nipa Patel, University Grading Issues and Policies

• Kurt Rottunda, Chinese Students on the U of I Campus
• Louis Morton, Coffee Talk: Language in Cafes Across Campus
• Suzanne Perkins, Ethnography of the Language of Creative Writers
• Nate Harmann, Acting and Acting Myths
• Nicholas Murphy, The MTD 22 Illini
• Christine Travers, Ethnography of the Urbana Fire Department
• Andrew Meyer, Three Hours that Changed the World: T. K. Cureton
• Tiffany White, Student Workouts at WIMPE
• John Noble, The Canopy Club and Its Culture
• Bryan Calip and Laura Haning, Scott Hall and Video Gaming

• Cole Cullen, Residents' Use of the Gregory Drive Computer Lab
• David Lai, College Gamers: Their Technology, Their Academics
• Allie Wyler, Technology Used in Special Education
• Angela Marconi, WPGU: Technology and Tension of Corporate Media
• Daniel Edgerton, The UIUC Account Billing Office
• Joe Bottalla, The Behavior of Aviation Students
• Maria Frias, Coming Out Stories at the U of I
• Lissette Uriostegui, The Technology and Creativity of the Metal-Smithing Community
• Andrea Henderson, Greenhouse Workers in the Plant Biology Conservatory and Their Technology
• Chris Manna, Those Who Work Out in the ISR Weight Room

• √  creating tools for further inquiry
• √  learning about self and responsible action
• √  learning how to make positive social change
• √√  learning in the disciplines

• Fundamental inconsistency between top-down approaches and authentic inquiry
• What happens when users are not merely recipients of a design for inquiry, but take an active role in creating that design?
• Design refers to procedures for information-seeking and problem-solving, as well as to ICT's

• users remain in the "process of authority" —John Dewey, Democracy and education in the world of today, LW.13.295
• "inquiry" defined by the participants
• technology as the outcome of problem-solving (pragmatic technology, —Larry Hickman, 1990
• reverse "design ⇒ build ⇒ use"
• shared form of life: "What do we as designers have to do to qualify as participants in the language-games of the users?" —Pelle Ehn, 1992

Genuine intellectual integrity is found in experimental knowing.

—John Dewey, Essays in experimental logic, MW.10.365

• web-based means to articulate and engage in inquiry
• virtual plus place-based communities
• uses: courseware, online journals, community groups, individual inquiries
• international connections

• Community: Collaborative activity around creating knowledge that is connected to people's values, history, and lived experiences
• Inquiry: Open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement
• Laboratory: Bringing theory and action together in an experimental and critical manner

—Cameron Jones, Bertram C. Bruce, Ann Bishop

Not primarily in methods or content

But in the breakdown in connections between:

• knowledge and action
• individual and community
• formal schooling and lived experience
• means and ends of problem-solving

Inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole

—John Dewey, Logic: The theory of inquiry, LW.12.108

The moment when understanding and action come into dynamic and reciprocal relationship with one another is the moment when inquiry for both students and teachers truly comes alive.

• Trivialization of both processes (black box)
• Linear structure
• Constrained-by tools
• Constrains tools
• Disjointed curriculum

The true value of the web lies in the way it can open up our questions. We ask one thing, but the web leads us to ask more questions and to become aware of how much we do not know. A recognition of these problems leads us to move from a conception of searching the web to find a piece of information to one in which a search is embedded in how we think: How can searching become not only "looking up," but truly productive inquiry?

—Bertram C. Bruce, 2000

• Ask: finding problems, not just solving them
• Investigate: integration of problem-solving, information seeking, learning
• Create: action and understanding
• Discuss: social, community inquiry
• Reflect: designing tools for further inquiry

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