TY - JOUR AB - Purpose This paper aims to discuss how search, sense making and learning have become more closely integrated, as search services have leveraged new technologies and large and media-diverse data streams.Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews progress in search over the past 60 years, summarizes different theories of sense making and learning and proposes a framework for integrating these activities.Findings The arguments are supported with examples from search in 2018 and suggest that even as search becomes an automated process during learning, search strategies must continue to evolve to insure that complex information needs can be met.Research limitations/implications The work is limited to search that uses electronic search systems. Implications include the need to understand that multiple levels of system inferences/estimates are used to present search results and that different kinds of learning processes are affected by search systems.Social implications The importance of information literacy is implied.Originality/value This paper will provide readers with an understanding of how search services and systems have evolved and their implications for human learning. VL - 120 IS - 1/2 SN - 2398-5348 DO - 10.1108/ILS-06-2018-0049 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-06-2018-0049 AU - Marchionini Gary PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Search, sense making and learning: closing gaps T2 - Information and Learning Sciences PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 74 EP - 86 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -