Personal Information Management Strategies and Tactics used by Senior Engineers

Pikas, Christina K. (2007) Personal Information Management Strategies and Tactics used by Senior Engineers. In Grove, Andrew, Eds. Proceedings 70th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 44, Milwaukee, WI (US).

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Abstract

This paper reports the results of an exploratory qualitative study of how senior engineers in a research laboratory environment do personal information management (PIM). Responsive, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four senior engineers. Thirteen themes in four groupings emerged. The four groupings are: organization and retrieval, un-organized aspects, information keeping and preservation, and use of specialized tools. Themes not seen in other studies are: writing to remember and reporting to retrieve, and personal handbooks. The themes are described in detail. Implications for the design of information systems and future work are discussed.

Keywords:	personal information management, PIM, engineers
Subjects:	C. Users, literacy and reading. > CA. Use studies.
ID Code:	12564
Deposited By:	Pikas, Christina
Deposited On:	24 January 2008
All fields:	Show all fields

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