| People engage in multiple types of information-seeking strategies within an information-seeking episode. Very little is known about how end users develop and revise their search strategies. The objective of this study is to investigate search strategies made by end-users when searching for image information. A strategy refers to an approach that an information seeker adopts when dealing with a particular problem. Users' search strategies addressed in this study focus on querying, searching, and relevance decision-making stages. In the querying stage, characteristics of users' queries were examined to see what strategies are employed. In the searching stage, users' search moves and tactics to find relevant image information were analyzed. In the relevance decision-making stage, users' criteria and the usefulness of textual information of images for judging relevant images were identified. The study involves 30 photo editors, including 15 non-news and news photo editors respectively, using the AP Photo Archive database to retrieve specific, general, and subjective photos. Data were collected through think-aloud protocols, transaction logs and post-search interviews and questionnaires. Content analysis and quantitative methods were used to analyze the verbal, transaction and questionnaire data.; The study identifies some commonalities and discrepancies in employing strategies for retrieving specific, general, and subjective photos.{09}The commonalities were the use of core relevance criteria, browsing, textual information, and searching tactics to compensate for the querying difficulties across the three searches. The differences were that the searchers relied more on visual concepts when making relevance judgments in the specific search, while in the general and subjective searches the searchers relied more on nonvisual concepts. It was more difficult for the searchers to formulate and reformulate their queries in the subjective search. The searchers employed more tactics and complex search moves when conducting the general and subjective searches. Generally, the non-news photo editors applied search strategies much more passively and conservatively than the news photo editors.; Current image retrieval systems provide little or no support for searchers' search strategies. The study outlines an overall picture of searchers' image searching behavior in the field of journalism and concludes with suggestions for the design of system interfaces and future studies. |
