Personal Information Management Lab

Personal Information Management (PIM) is an activity in which individuals store and retrieve their personal information items. Such information items include files, emails, Web favorites, contacts, photos, and music. In the PIM Lab, we design and evaluate new PIM interfaces, and study PIM using a large variety of research methods including cognitive psychology methods (dual-task paradigm), neuropsychology methods (fMRI), as well as research techniques developed in our lab (Elicited Personal Information Retrieval). Our streaming music collection studies received the Rector Award for Innovative Research in 2024.

 

Lab Personnel

Prof. Ofer Bergman, Head of Lab

Dr. Noa Gradovitch, Senior Researcher

Dr. Tamar Israeli, Senior Researcher

Past Research Students

Noga Dvir (Ph.D. under revision), Aelitta Shnaper-Reinberg (thesis under revision), Noa Yomtovyan (2024 Cum Laude), Esther Sher (2022 Cum Laude), Diana Gutman (2020 Cum Laude), Yedidia Perrodin (2020 Summa Cum Laude), Gidon Tish (2020 Cum Laude), Yaron Frishman (2017 Summa Cum Laude), Nimrod Yanai (2016 Summa Cum Laude), Edva Lotan (2014 Summa Cum Laude), Noa Falk (2013 Summa Cum Laude), Liv Glazer (2013 Summa Cum Laude), Maskit Tene-Rubinstein (2012 Summa Cum Laude).

We are looking for excellent research students. Contact: Ofer.Bergman@biu.ac.il

Close Collaborators

Prof. Steve Whittaker, Distinguished Professor of Computational Media, University of California at Santa Cruz

Dr. Yael Benn, Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University

Publications

Book

Bergman, O. Whittaker, S. (2016). The science of managing our digital stuff. MIT Press.

Journals

Bergman, O., Dvir, N (student) (2024). File hyper-searching explained. Human-Computer Interaction.

Bergman, O., Gradovitch, N. (2023). Collecting streaming music increases listening enjoyment. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

Bergman, O., Sher, E. (student) (2023). File search: A contrast between beliefs and behavior. Interacting with Computers.

Bergman, O., Whittaker, S., Gradovitch, N. (2022). Evidence for the merits of collecting streaming music. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

Bergman, O., Gutman, D. (student), Whittaker, S., (2022).It’s too much for us to handle - The effect of smartphones use on long term retrieval of family photos. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 

Bergman, O., Whittaker, Tish, G. (student) (2022). Collecting music in the streaming age. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

Bergman, O., Israeli (student), T., & Benn, Y. (2021). Why do some people search for their files much more than others? A preliminary study.  Aslib Journal of Information Management 73(3), pp. 406-418.

Bergman, O., Whittaker, S., Schooler, J. (student) (2021). Out of sight and out of mind: Bookmarks are created but not used. Journal of Librarianship & Information Science 53, 2 pp. 338-348.

Bergman, O., Israeli, T., Whittaker, S. (2020). The scalability of different file sharing methods. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

Bergman, O., Israeli, T. Whittaker, S. (2020). Factors hindering shared files retrieval. ASLIB Journal of Information Management 72 (1), pp. 130-147.

Bergman, O., Whittaker, S., Frishman, Y. (student) (2018). Let’s get personal: The little nudge that improves documents retrieval in the cloud. Journal of Documentation 75 (2).

Israeli, T. (student), Bergman, O. (2018). Wait, where is that file? The effect of workload on personal information management. Dvarim 11, 143-157 (in Hebrew).

Bergman, O., Yanai, N. (student) (2018). Personal information retrieval: Smartphones vs. computers, emails vs. files. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 22(40) pp 621–632.

Benn, Y.*, Bergman, O.*, Glazer, L., Arent P., Wilkinson, I., Varley, R., Whittaker, S. (2005). Navigating through digital folders uses the same brain structures as real world navigation. Scientific Reports 5, 14719, Nature Publication Group.

*Joint first authors.

Bergman, O., Elyada, O., Dvir, N., Vaitzman, Y., Ben Ami, A. (2015). Spotting the latest version of a file with Old’nGray. Interacting with Computers.

Bergman, O., Whittaker, S., Falk, N. (2014).  Shared files: The retrieval perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 65 (10) pp. 1949-1963.

Bergman, O. (2013). Variables for personal information management research. Aslib Proceedings 65(5): pp 464 – 483.

Bergman, O., Gradovitch, N., Bar-Ilan, J., Beyth-Marom, R., (2013). Folder vs. tag preference in personal information management. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 64(10) pp1995-2012.

Bergman, O, Tene-Rubinstein, M., Shalom, J. (2013). The use of attention resources in navigation vs. search. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17(3): pp 583-590.

Book Chapters

Bergman, O., (2012). The user-subjective approach to personal information management – from theory to practice. In Human-Computer Interaction: The Agency Perspective, Zacarias, M., Valente de Oliveira, J. (Eds.), Springer.

Bergman, O., Benn, Y. (2017). A neuro-cognitive explanation for the prevalence of folder navigation and web browsing. In Information Systems and Neuroscience: Gmunden Retreat on NeuroIS 2017, Davis, F., D., Riedl, R., Brocke, J., V., Léger, P., M., Randolph, A., B. (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation (Book Series).

Conference Papers

Bergman, O., Israeli, T., Whittaker, S., Yanai, N., Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2020). The effect of personality traits on file retrieval.  iConference 2020.

Bergman, O., Israeli, T. Whittaker, S. (2019). Search is the future? –The young search less for files. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 56(1), 360-363 [Acceptance rate 47%].

Bergman, O., Tucker, S., Somaya, D. (2018). The effect of demoting near-duplicate pictures. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 55(1), 755-756 [Acceptance rate 49%].

Bergman, O., Gradovitch, N., Bar-Ilan, J., Beyth-Marom, R. (2013). Tagging personal information: A contrast between attitudes and behavior. Proceedings of the 2013 ASIST Annual Meeting.

Gradovitch, N., Bergman, O., Bar Ilan, J., Beyth-Marom R. (2012). Tags vs. folders in Gmail – Preliminary findings.  Proceedings of Chais Conference for Learning Technologies 2012 (pp. 63-69). Best Student Award Nominee

Gradovitch, N., Bergman, O., Bar Ilan, J., Beyth-Marom R. (2012) Tags vs. folders in Gmail – Preliminary findings. Chais 2012.