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Congruence between Information Known and Information Used in Conducting Known-Item Searches. Barbara M. Wildemuth and Sanghee Oh School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Motivation for the study. Dr. Kilgour’s interest in online catalogs: - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Congruence between Information Known and
Information Used in Conducting Known-Item
SearchesBarbara M. Wildemuth and
Sanghee OhSchool of Information and Library
ScienceUniversity of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Motivation for the study
Frederick G. KilgourDistinguished Research Professor
Dr. Kilgour’s interest in online catalogs:
How can they best serve users?
Pilot study conducted in 1993
Study methodsInterviews
•Conducted as library patrons (n=63) approached the Davis Library public workstations, spring and fall semesters of 2002
•Asked about purposes of search; included only those searching for a particular item
•Photocopied any materials available
•Asked to enter user ID (e.g., x01) as first search term
Transaction logs
•Transaction logs captured (OPAC logs, Web server logs)
•User transaction identified by searching log for user ID
•Searches for 99 items
UNC’s catalog, 2004
Interpreting the transaction logs
2002/03/25 17:06:52 tid=368 User logged in as: GUEST Session id: A1tpv9dq.0002002/03/25 17:06:52 Login: Succeeded User: GUEST Session: A1tpv9dq.0002002/03/25 17:06:58 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Preparing to search (CCL). MARION Query: keyes, charles2002/03/25 17:06:58 CCLQuery "keyes, charles" User: A1tpv9dq.001 Server: 5home Records 17 Lapse(msec.): 942002/03/25 17:06:59 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch: 11 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 750 R/sec: 142002/03/25 17:07:00 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch: 6 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 1172 R/sec: 52002/03/25 17:09:40 tid=480 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Preparing to search (CCL). MARION Query: x212002/03/25 17:09:40 CCLQuery "x21" User: A1tpv9dq.002 Server: 5home Records 4 Lapse(msec.): 6412002/03/25 17:09:41 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Fetch: 4 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 125 R/sec: 322002/03/25 17:09:58 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.003 Preparing to search (ATS). MARION Query: keys, charles 2002/03/25 17:09:58 ATSQuery: "keys, charles" Qualifier: au User: A1tpv9dq.003 Server: 3home Lapse(msec.): 782002/03/25 17:10:01 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.004 Preparing to search (ATS). MARION Query: CHARLES KEYS, 2002/03/25 17:10:01 ATSQuery: "CHARLES KEYS," Qualifier: au User: A1tpv9dq.004 Server: 3home Lapse(msec.): 932002/03/25 17:10:03 tid=379 sessid=A1tpv9dq.005 Preparing to search (ATS). MARION Query: KEYS, CHARLES 2002/03/25 17:10:03 ATSQuery: "KEYS, CHARLES" Qualifier: au User: A1tpv9dq.005 Server: 3home Lapse(msec.): 162002/03/25 17:10:18 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.006 Preparing to search (ATS). MARION Query: keyes, charles, 2002/03/25 17:10:18 ATSQuery: "keyes, charles," Qualifier: au User: A1tpv9dq.006 Server: 3home Lapse(msec.): 172A1tpv9dq.0062002/03/25 17:20:19 Logout: Succeeded Session: A1tpv9dq.0062002/03/25 17:20:19 tid=455 Releasing session: A1tpv9dq.006
Transaction log for x21
Who were the catalog users?Status
Graduate students in classics
Discipline
n %
Graduate students 26 41%
Undergraduate students
16 25%
Faculty 11 17%
Staff and other 10 16%
n %
Humanities 24 47%
Social sciences 18 35%
Natural sciences 7 14%
Undeclared 2 4%
Why were they using the catalog?Purpose for searching
n %
To support a course 19 30%
To support dissertation research
5 8%
To support other research 24 38%
For personal reasons 15 24%
Where did the search terms come from?
n %
References in books or databases
32 51%
Professors or class readings lists
13 21%
Personal sources 7 11%
Other sources 11 17%
Source of information (n=63)
Basis for formulating a search strategy (n=99)n %
Formal source, i.e., database printout or published bibliography
9 9%
Informal bibliographies 1 1%
Handwritten notes 24 24%
Memory 65 66%
What was “known” about known items?99 items searched
•85 searches for books
•11 searches for journals
•3 searches for movies
•For 10 items, the user had a complete citation
•For 30 items, the user knew the author
•For 30 items, the user knew all or part of the title
•For 19 items, the user knew both author and title
•For 6 items, the user reported no data elements known
Which data elements were used?
Data elements used in the searches
AuthorAuthor +
titleTitle
Complete citation 2 8
Author 30
Title or partial title 2 29
Author + title 7 9 3
Other data elements
1 1 2
No data elements 2 1 3
Data
ele
ments
report
ed a
s kn
ow
n
A closer look at the search strategiesDid the terms used in the search match the data elements known?
The fields that were searched The spelling of the terms Upper/lower case Author name order
Transaction log of user x05
Searching particular fields (1)10 participants (15%) used the Keyword Field for searching.
Searching author or title as keywords
•x49: “Ladies in the streets” (a partial title), searched as keyword•x86: “Journal of African Studies” (title), searched as keyword
Searching keyword field first, and then correcting the field
•x60: Proceedings of CHI (title)kw: proceedings of CHI
ti: proceedings of CHIsubj: human computer interaction
•x64: robert, louis (author)kw: robert, louisti: robert, louisau: robert, louis
54 participants (85%) used the fields that correctly matched the type of information known.
Searching both author and title•x07: Hernandez (author), Database Designs for Mere Mortals (title)
ti: Database Designs for Mere Mortalsau: HernandezTitle searched first, then author
Correct match, but retried the search in a different field
•x50: Elephants and Weep (title)ti: Elephants and Weepsubj: Elephants
Incorrect match, so retried the search in a different field
•x64: stuid e materiali d (title)au: stuid e materiali d ti: stuid e materiali d
Searching particular fields (2)
Spelling problems8 participants had spelling problems
All had used the correct spelling by the end of the search
•x21: Keyes, Charles (author)keyes, charles; keys, charles; CHARLES KEYS; KEYS, CHARLES; keyes, charles
•x80: Thomas Kuehn (author)keuhn, thomas; THOMAS KEUHN; KEUHN, THOMAS;
keuhn; keuhn; kuehn
•x50: Elephants and Weep (title)Elelphants and Weep; Elephants and Weep
Upper/lower case15 participants modified their search terms by changing the case
Modifying the search terms to upper case
•x02: Edgar Allan Poe
edgar poe poems; edgar poe; POE EDGAR
•x20: Doug Oard
Doug Oard; OARD DOUG; DOUG OARD; OARD
•x51: The Beaux Stratagem
The Beaux Stratagem; BEAUX STRATAGEM
Author name orderAmong 40 participants who conducted an author search,
12 used only the last name for searching,
14 entered first name first, and
14 entered last name first.
13 participants changed name order during the search•x80: Paisley, Ian (author)
ian paisley; paisley ian; IAN PAISLEY; PAISLEY IAN; paisley ian
Were the searches successful?
Based on the searcher’s reportn %
Successful 35 76%
Unsuccessful 5 11%
Collection failure 6 13%
Implications of the studyUsers search from “memory”
•66% had no documentation of information known about the object of the search
•All of the unsuccessful searches were based on the searcher’s memory
•Memory aids are needed
Users search for authors and titles
•For 14 searches, data elements beyond author and title were known
•No data elements except author and title were used
Questions?
Photo creditsDr. Frederick G. Kilgour, SILS, UNC-CH, http://sils.unc.edu/support/ invest_faculty.html UNC classics students, http://classics.unc.edu/graduate/ grad_students.html Student studying, Monmouth College, http://www.monm.edu/academics/final-exam-schedule.htmBook citation, Monash University Library, http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/psychol/psych04b.htmJournal citation, Monash University Library, http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/psychol/psych04d.htmSuccessful boy, Next Wave, http://www.nextwave.hu/stories.htmHoax, future of home computers, Follow the Media, http://www.followthemedia.com/alldigital/dighome.htm