The “socialness” of search Alison J. Head, Ph.D., Project Information Literacy University of Washington iSchool, metaLAB (at) Harvard 27 January 2016 | Social Research Panel, Harvard Library, 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. A model of shared utility

How do social networks impact search behaviors today?

Initial interviews n = 63 Follow-up Interviews n = 63 Report released PIL’s lifelong learning study Online Survey n =

Personal life Workplace Community Search engines 88% Friends 79% Social networks 79% Family 77% Public libraries 45% Co-workers 84% Search engines 83% Boss 79% Books 51% Conferences 49% Search engines 38% Social networks 26% Friends 24% News sources 23% Family 15% 2015 Lifelong Learning Survey, n = 1651 (check all that apply, 16 categories) Learning sources within grads’ lives

Use of social networking sites Finding and sharing creative ideas + affordable inspiration Recruiting new hires + finding new job leads since they’re always looking Staying in contact with family & friends+ “liking” as a powerful aggregator

“I ‘liked’ the pages of a whole lot of publications and my newsfeed started filling up... “Instead of spending time looking at what my friends were doing, I started looking at what was going on in the business world and that really helped me stay current. Facebook > finding related items on the Web

Google > shortcut to individual pages 2015 Lifelong Learning Survey, | n = 1651 graduates

Social search > model of “shared utility” Usefulness Interactivity Shared Utility

Fundamental shift in information seeking 2016 Lifelong Learning Report, p. 57.