The shift from traditional search engines to LLM-based conversational AI systems has transformed how people interact with information. However, the role of AI systems in supporting interest-driven rather than goal-directed searches remains underexplored. Through a one-week naturalistic study with 19 participants and 95 audio diaries, we examine interest-driven search, in which search is initiated and sustained by user interest, and the direction and depth of how exploration shifts as that interest develops. We present the AI-Mediated Interest-Driven Search (AIM-IDS) model, which reveals how phases of interest development correspond to search behaviors in AI-mediated environments. Our findings show that while AI-mediated search lowers barriers to initiating exploration, the same features that support early-phase interest development can hinder sustained engagement in later phases. We conclude with design implications for AI systems that support interest development across different interest types.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how people seek, access, and use information, with significant implications for researchers, educators, and students. Increasingly, academic search engines, bibliographic databases, and digital libraries are integrating AI features, including generated and synthesized content, conversational interfaces, and intelligent recommendation. These tools promise to support discovery, synthesis, and learning, yet they also raise critical questions about search integrity, fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics (FATE). In academic contexts, where reliability and credibility are paramount, the design and use of AI-mediated search systems require novel ideas and approaches. Building on previous work in interactive information retrieval (IIR), search as learning, and search user interface design, this workshop invites the CHIIR community to examine opportunities and challenges in developing and using AI-powered academic search systems for research and higher education.

Abstract Creativity is one of the critical skills for people in a variety of academic, work, and everyday life contexts. Searching for information is essential to the creative process. Despite the recent increased attention in research on information searching for creative tasks, there is still little understanding of how people search for information to generate novel and useful ideas. This study aims to address three key research questions: (1) What search processes do people engage in while completing creative tasks, (2) what creative thinking strategies are employed when searching to generate ideas, and (3) what challenges do people encounter while searching for creative tasks. The data were collected at a university in the United States using multiple methods, combining pre‐task interviews, search sessions that involved the generation of new ideas, and post‐task interviews. Drawing from the data analysis from 31 interviews and search sessions, we present a conceptual framework for information searching for creative tasks across academic and everyday search contexts. Our findings highlight exploration as a critical search activity when searching to generate ideas. The results of this study enhance our understanding of the relationship between search activities and creative thinking strategies.

Users searching for information in academic contexts often need to compare different perspectives, organize search results, and synthesize topics. To support people’s creative thinking processes while searching for academic information, we developed SearchIdea, a Web-based online tool, that enables users to actively interact with search results beyond evaluation and selection. Through its three primary features–search-results, SearchMapper, and IdeaMapper–SearchIdea allows users to add saved search results to SearchMapper for comparison, prioritization, and rearrangement. Using IdeaMapper, users can elicit keywords from search results, brainstorm, and organize ideas while identifying relationships among ideas. We also developed a baseline tool, IdeaPad, which provides users with a simple pad for writing and editing text. We then conducted an evaluation study with 58 students at a university in the United States. The study subjects were assigned to either SearchIdea or IdeaPad and performed two search tasks: (1) generating as many ideas as possible, and (2) selecting the best idea after generating multiple ideas. The results showed that subjects using SearchIdea entered more unique search terms, generated longer queries, and engaged with search results more actively than those who used IdeaPad. The SearchIdea users reported higher ratings for idea generation in terms of synthesizing and organizing ideas than did the IdeaPad users. The findings of our study provide insights into how an idea generation tool can connect search activities with creative thinking processes in order to generate more and better ideas.

Creative thinking processes involve a set of cognitive operations and behaviors people engage to generate new ideas and solutions. Information searching is an integral part of the creative thinking process. The purpose of this study is to discover the creative thinking processes and search strategies students use to generate new ideas in academic and everyday life information use contexts. The data were collected through a pre-task interview, a search session for a creative task, and a post-task interview. Fifteen graduate students at a research university participated in the study. From the data analysis, we identified four distinctive, yet interconnected creative thinking processes: planning for creative search tasks, searching for new ideas, synthesizing search results, and organizing ideas. Based on these findings, we point out the need to design search systems to support creative thinking processes during searching to facilitate generation of new ideas.

In this perspectives paper we define knowledge-context as meta information that searchers use when making sense of information displayed in and accessible from a search engine results page (SERP). We argue that enriching the knowledge-context in SERPs has great potential for facilitating human learning, critical thinking, and creativity by expanding searchers' information-literate actions such as comparing, evaluating, and differentiating between information sources. Thus it supports the development of learning-centric search systems. Using theories and empirical findings from psychology and the learning sciences, we first discuss general effects of Web search on memory and learning. After reviewing selected research addressing metacognition and self-regulated learning, we discuss design goals for search systems that support metacognitive skills required for long-term learning, creativity, and critical thinking. We then propose that SERPs make both bibliographic and inferential knowledge-context readily accessible to motivate and facilitate information-literate actions for learning and creative endeavors. A brief discussion of related ideas, designs, and prototypes found in prior work follows. We conclude the paper by presenting future research directions and questions on knowledge-context, information-literate actions, and learning-centric search systems.

Users make frequent use of Web search for learning-related tasks, but little is known about how different Web search interaction strategies affect outcomes for learning-oriented tasks, or what implicit or explicit indicators could reliably be used to assess search-related learning on the Web. We describe a lab-based user study in which we investigated potential indicators of learning in web searching, effective query strategies for learning, and the relationship between search behavior and learning outcomes. Using questionnaires, analysis of written responses to knowledge prompts, and search log data, we found that searchers' perceived learning outcomes closely matched their actual learning outcomes; that the amount searchers wrote in post-search questionnaire responses was highly correlated with their cognitive learning scores; and that the time searchers spent per document while searching was also highly and consistently correlated with higher-level cognitive learning scores. We also found that of the three query interaction conditions we applied, an intrinsically diverse presentation of results was associated with the highest percentage of users achieving combined factual and conceptual knowledge gains. Our study provides deeper insight into which aspects of search interaction are most effective for supporting superior learning outcomes, and the difficult problem of how learning may be assessed effectively during Web search.

Abstract In this article, we identify, compare, and contrast theoretical constructs for the fields of information searching and information retrieval to emphasize the uniqueness of and synergy between the fields. Theoretical constructs are the foundational elements that underpin a field's core theories, models, assumptions, methodologies, and evaluation metrics. We provide a framework to compare and contrast the theoretical constructs in the fields of information searching and information retrieval usingintellectual perspectiveandtheoretical orientation. The intellectual perspectives areinformation searching,information retrieval, andcross‐cutting; and the theoretical orientations areinformation,people, andtechnology. Using this framework, we identify 17 significant constructs in these fields contrasting the differences and comparing the similarities. We discuss the impact of the interplay among these constructs for moving research forward within both fields. Although there is tension between the fields due to contradictory constructs, an examination shows a trend toward convergence. We discuss the implications for future research within the information searching and information retrieval fields.

Abstract As more people gain at‐home access to the Internet, information seeking on the Web has become embedded in everyday life. The objective of this study was to characterize the home as an information use environment and to identify a range of information seeking and Web‐search behaviors at home. Twelve Northern California residents were recruited, and the data were collected through semi‐structured at‐home interviews based on a self‐reported Search Activities Diary that subjects kept over a 3–5 day period. The data were analyzed on four levels: home environment, information seeking goals, information retrieval interaction, and search query. Findings indicated that the home, indeed, provided a distinct information use environment beyond physical setting alone in which the subjects used the Web for diverse purposes and interests. Based on the findings, the relationships among home environment, Web context, and interaction situation were identified with respect to user goals and information‐seeking behaviors.

Abstract In the Web, making judgments of information quality and authority is a difficult task for most users because overall, there is no quality control mechanism. This study examines the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing people's searching behavior in the Web. Its purpose is to understand the various factors that influence people's judgment of quality and authority in the Web, and the effects of those judgments on selection behaviors. Fifteen scholars from diverse disciplines participated, and data were collected combining verbal protocols during the searches, search logs, and postsearch interviews. It was found that the subjects made two distinct kinds of judgment: predictive judgment, and evaluative judgment. The factors influencing each judgment of quality and authority were identified in terms of characteristics of information objects, characteristics of sources, knowledge, situation, ranking in search output, and general assumption. Implications for Web design that will effectively support people's judgments of quality and authority are also discussed.