TY - JOUR
T1 - How Knowledge Workers Manage Their Personal Information Spaces
T2 - Perceptions, Challenges and High-Level Strategies
AU - Alon, Lilach
AU - Hardof-Jaffe, Sharon
AU - Nachmias, Rafi
AU - Van Schaik, Paul
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Computer Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - The study explored the personal information management (PIM) experiences of knowledge workers, defined as workers in professional fields where information is the essence of the work. It examined their perceptions of personal information spaces, challenges of managing personal information and the use of PIM strategies and looked for links between them. Qualitative data were collected in seven in-depth interviews with knowledge workers from education and industry. Content analysis included horizontal analysis and cluster of meanings analysis (Moustakas, 1994). Participants varied in the extent to which they sensed three factors: belonging to, dependence on and control of information spaces. They mentioned two specific challenges: the overloading of personal information spaces and the divergence of these spaces. Participants used a number of innovative high-level strategies for saving, managing and retrieving information. The strategies were linked to both perceptions and challenges of the personal space. The paper concludes with guidelines for managing information. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: A complex set of perceptions (belonging, dependence and control) characterizes the interaction between knowledge workers and their personal information spaces. High-level strategies for saving, managing and retrieving information are a useful way of coping with the PIM challenges of overloaded and divergent information spaces. Innovative thinking about PIM is an important aspect of knowledge workers' ability to manage personal information in the digital era.
AB - The study explored the personal information management (PIM) experiences of knowledge workers, defined as workers in professional fields where information is the essence of the work. It examined their perceptions of personal information spaces, challenges of managing personal information and the use of PIM strategies and looked for links between them. Qualitative data were collected in seven in-depth interviews with knowledge workers from education and industry. Content analysis included horizontal analysis and cluster of meanings analysis (Moustakas, 1994). Participants varied in the extent to which they sensed three factors: belonging to, dependence on and control of information spaces. They mentioned two specific challenges: the overloading of personal information spaces and the divergence of these spaces. Participants used a number of innovative high-level strategies for saving, managing and retrieving information. The strategies were linked to both perceptions and challenges of the personal space. The paper concludes with guidelines for managing information. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: A complex set of perceptions (belonging, dependence and control) characterizes the interaction between knowledge workers and their personal information spaces. High-level strategies for saving, managing and retrieving information are a useful way of coping with the PIM challenges of overloaded and divergent information spaces. Innovative thinking about PIM is an important aspect of knowledge workers' ability to manage personal information in the digital era.
KW - document management
KW - information retrieval
KW - personal information management
KW - personal information space
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075067595&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/iwc/iwz021
DO - 10.1093/iwc/iwz021
M3 - מאמר
AN - SCOPUS:85075067595
VL - 31
SP - 303
EP - 316
JO - Interacting with Computers
JF - Interacting with Computers
SN - 0953-5438
IS - 3
ER -