A New Tide in the User Studies : Focusing on C. C. Kuhlthau's Cognitive User Model

Abstract

This paper reviews a series of study conducted by Carol C. Kuhlthau who investigated user's information seeking processes in libraries over 10 years. In her study, she constructed an Information Search Process Model (ISP Model). ISP Model represents aspects of user activities as a whole. These include feelings, thoughts, and actions (behaviors). The model sheds a new light on the user study. The Model, however, has many problems in areas such as the problem solving processes, the author's view of "feelings", and her method of investigation of the informaion seeking process by the user. As a result, it was ascertained as follows: ISP model should be: (1) reconstructed from different points of view, for example employing 'value' aspect ; (2) verified in areas other than libraries, for instance in the thinktanks. A new model for "information" search process, thus, must be constructed and generalized.