Searching 4 Fun! 2014

Important Dates

• Submissions: 10 20th June 2014
• Notifications: 30th June 2014
• IIiX EarlyBird Reg: 7th July 2014
• Camera Ready: 1st August 2014
• Workshop: 30th August 2014

Previous Workshop

Read about the Searching4Fun 2012 Workshop and look at the papers in Searching4Fun 2012 Proceedings.

Twitter

We'll be using the #search4fun hashtag where possible

Schedule

Accepted Papers

We've accepted 7 exciting papers from across 7 countries in Europe and Asia.

• Fiction retrieval in online library catalogs
  Anna Mikkonen (Tampere)
  Abstract:
  The aim of the study is to provide information on how readers with different literary orientations search for fiction using an enriched library catalog compared to a traditional catalog. User tests were conducted with 80 fiction readers. Five simulated search tasks were created based on previous literature. Data analysis was initiated with search moves and success. The most used search moves in both catalogs across all tasks were querying, search result inspection and book page exploring. In a traditional catalog more effort was needed in the form of queries, search moves and opened book pages to gain equivalent average book scores than in an enriched catalog. Regression models yielded differences in the association of search moves and book scores between tasks and catalogs. The models for a traditional catalog suggest that the effort invested in exploring individual book pages instead of search results produces better book scores. The models for an enriched catalog hint that the effort invested in a quick first query and browsing the enriched front page results in best book scores. Analysis was continued by identifying major search tactics applied in fiction searching. Next, the characteristics of search tactics will be used to model fiction searching in browsing situations.
• How do children search for fun?
  Sophie Rutter (Sheffield) and Paul Clough (Sheffield)
  Abstract:
  Most of what is known about children’s searching behaviour is based on researcher set search tasks usually related to school work but children are also using search engines for leisure purposes, and there is little research in this area. In this paper, we suggest that a study of children searching YouTube for Minecraft videos may reveal different search behaviour than those currently associated with children’s search, and the behaviour may be more akin to that observed in adults when searching for fun.
• The Characteristics of Casual Sessions in Search Behaviour Logs
  Chaoyu Ye (Nottingham) and Max L. Wilson (Nottingham)
  Abstract:
  The premise of Searching4Fun literature is that people engage in search sessions for the enjoyment of searching and passing time, rather than to find specific information for a larger task-oriented goal. Identifying these cases can be difficult, however, because what one person may search for, for fun, may be the important work task of another. In this paper, we provide initial evidence that behavioural data, combined with time-of-day, maybe be a good indicator. To do this we initially analyse high- and low-importance sessions, as identified by their owners. Our argue, based on these preliminary results, that such aspects could be studied in more depth to study people’s sessions when they are searching for fun.
• Searching for Puns: Towards Identification of Humour on Twitter
  Morgan Harvey (Lugano)
  Abstract:
  Research has shown that casual leisure search - when users are searching for entertainment purposes and with no fixed information need to fulfil - is becoming an increasingly common type of online task. A frequently occurring type of casual leisure search involves users looking for something humorous to help pass the time, such as a short gag or pun. An almost unlimited source of such material is Twitter, a service which allows millions of users to post short messages (known as tweets) to their followers. Despite the potential offered by Twitter, it is often very difficult to extract good quality content from the huge number of nonsense messages posted. In this work we conduct a small user study (n=8) to try to learn whether people agree on what a humorous tweet is and discuss ways in which we could learn how to automatically identify funny jokes, gags and puns posted on Twitter.
• How to Study Children Searching For Fun: Some Experiences and Reflections
  Emma Nicol (Strathclyde) and Monica Landoni (USI)
  Abstract:
  This position paper reports on insights gained on searching for fun during studies of children's information-seeking behaviour in schools. While much of our focus has been on information seeking for school topics, to provide context for our studies and to understand more about children's interests and motivations we have carried out short investigations of the children's information preferences and searching activities in their leisure time. Our findings indicate significant differences in information needs and searching style from adults and highlight the challenges posed when considering a study of this behaviour.
• Evaluation of Music Search in Casual-Leisure Situations
  Xiao Hu (Hong Kong) and Noriko Kando (NII, Japan)
  Abstract:
  Music is a common media for entertainment, yet existing studies on evaluation of music information retrieval are still dominated by the use of conventional methods and measures in Information Retrieval (e.g., precision, recall, task completion time). In this paper, we argue that conventional IR evaluation methods and measures may not be applicable to music search in casual-leisure situations. We propose evaluation measures and suggestions on evaluation methods that better fit such situations.
• Wikipedia in casual leisure scenarios
  Hanna Knäusl (Regensburg) and David Elsweiler (Regensburg)
  Abstract:
  Wikipedia is used in many contexts, including exploratory search in casual leisure situations. After a first investigation of seeking strategies in different situations of use we noticed that searching behavior in casual-leisure situations differs a lot from user to user. Some read long texts, some prefer pictures and only read short passages or others visit many different topics in short time. With our data we could show, that casual-leisure behavior was diverse to work-based tasks, but users’ preferences in casual-leisure tasks were different. To us this indicates, that perhaps a different presentation of the same information may be suitable, based on the users individual situation. Therefor we suggest some further research to learn more about the individual influences on preferences and search patterns in leisure time search situations.