Supporting the Process: Adapting Search Systems to Search Stages

Search engines have become indispensable tools for the information related tasks performed by a wide variety of searchers across the globe, and the information literacy of these search engine users varies widely. The more complex tasks performed using search engines, involving learning and construction, may consist of multiple stages, potentially affecting searchers’ feelings, thoughts and actions. However, despite recent advances in personalization and contextualization, current search engines do not necessarily support these stages. This conceptual paper discusses the potential impact of search stages on the desired functionality of search systems. First, it looks at process models in the context of information literacy, followed by the support of current search engines for the stages described in these models. Finally, the paper reconciles the information literacy and system perspectives by discussing novel stage-aware search systems.