Collaborative Information Searching in an Information-Intensive Work Domain: Preliminary Results‪.‬

Abstract: In this article we empirically investigate collaborative activities within information seeking and retrieval processes made in a real-life setting of the patent domain, at The Swedish Patent Office (PRV), Sweden. Generally, an information seeking and retrieval activity is regarded as an individual and isolated process. The study shows that the patent task performance process actually involves highly collaborative activities and aspects throughout all the different stages of the information seeking and retrieval process. The paper specifically reports on collegial- and group-related collaborative activities and external and internal collaborative activities. Key words : Collaborative search, information retrieval, patent retrieval