Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Information Search and Retrieval

Michael B. Twidale and David M. Nichols*

Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL

* Computing Department, Lancaster University, UK

Abstract

This review considers how research in collaborative technologies can inform research and development in library and information science (LIS). We review the field of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). As this is a substantial body of work, we only attempt to provide an overview, giving pointers to more detailed information. We have chosen articles that contain thorough reviews of certain subtopics, illustrate certain approaches, and are particularly accessible to a reader from outside the area. This allows us to bring up to date a number of surveys of CSCW undertaken in the early 1990s. The intention is to indicate the technologies developed in CSCW and some of the modes of analysis that have proven effective. We then consider how these technologies have been and might be applied within LIS and how they can interact with the existing body of knowledge and ongoing research in that field to improve the design of effective computerized information systems.

Related work on this topic can be found in:

• A Survey of Applications of CSCW for Digital Libraries, (1998)
  M.B. Twidale & D.M. Nichols,
  Technical Report - CSEG/4/98.

ARIADNE | CSEG | Computing Department | Lancaster University