Elicitation purposes and tasks during mediated information search

This paper provides an empirical characterization of elicitation purposes related to search tasks during mediated information retrieval. During retrieval, a human search intermediary consults with an information seeker about their information problem, and then conducts a search on the elicited topic, both elicit information from each other during the mediated search process. Elicitations during 30 mediated IR searches were examined. A total of 1,241 search intermediary elicitations within 17 IR elicitation categories and 485 information seeker elicitations within ten IR elicitations categories were identified. The paper provides an enhanced IR task model, including sub tasks, derived from our empirical findings. The implications of the findings are discussed.