In a world of information overload, understanding how we can most effectively manage information is crucial to success. We set out to understand how people view deletion, the removal of material no longer needed: does it help by reducing clutter and improving the signal to noise ratio, or does the effort required to decide to delete something make it not worthwhile? How does deletion relate to other strategies like filing; do people who spend extensive time in filing also prune their materials too? We studied the behaviour of 51 knowledge workers though a series of questionnaires and interviews to evaluate a range of tactics they used aimed at organizing, filing, and retrieving digital resources. Our study reveals that deletion is consistently under-adopted compared to other tactics such as Filing, Coverage, Ontology, and Timeliness. Moreover, the empirical data indicate that deletion is actually detrimental to retrieval success and satisfaction. In this paper, we examine the practice of deletion, review the related literature, and present detailed statistical results and clustering outcomes that underscore its adverse effects.

翻译：在信息过载的时代，理解如何最有效地管理信息对成功至关重要。我们旨在探究人们对删除（即移除不再需要的材料）的看法：它是否通过减少杂乱信息、提高信噪比而带来帮助？抑或是决定删除某物所需付出的努力使其得不偿失？删除与其他策略（如归档）存在何种关联？那些花费大量时间进行归档的人是否也会同步精简其材料？我们通过系列问卷和访谈研究了51名知识工作者的行为，评估他们用于组织、归档和检索数字资源的一系列策略。研究表明，与归档、覆盖、本体构建和时效性维护等其他策略相比，删除策略的采用率持续偏低。实证数据进一步表明，删除操作实际上会对检索成功率与用户满意度产生负面影响。本文系统审视了删除操作的实践模式，梳理了相关文献，并通过详尽的统计结果与聚类分析结论，揭示了其潜在的不利影响。