ARIADNE Collaborative Browsing Project

The use of library resources is stereotyped as a solitary activity, with hardly any mention in the library science and information retrieval literature on the social aspects of information systems. However, it is clear that end-users engage in significant collaboration; both with co-searchers, library staff and other interested parties. The skill of locating information is one that a growing number of people require but our knowledge of how to teach it remains rudimentary. In particular database systems fail to support both the learning of skills and the sharing of information.