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Congruence between Information Known and Information Used in Conducting Known-Item Searches

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:

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Congruence between Information Known and Information Used in Conducting Known-Item Searches

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  1. 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

  2. Motivation for the study • Dr. Kilgour’s interest in online catalogs: • How can they best serve users? • Pilot study conducted in 1993 Frederick G. Kilgour Distinguished Research Professor

  3. Study methods • Interviews • 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

  4. Interpreting the transaction logs Transaction log for x21 2002/03/25 17:06:52 tid=368 User logged in as: GUEST Session id: A1tpv9dq.000 2002/03/25 17:06:52 Login: Succeeded User: GUEST Session: A1tpv9dq.000 2002/03/25 17:06:58 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Preparing to search (CCL). MARION Query: keyes, charles 2002/03/25 17:06:58 CCLQuery "keyes, charles" User: A1tpv9dq.001 Server: 5home Records 17 Lapse(msec.): 94 2002/03/25 17:06:59 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch: 11 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 750 R/sec: 14 2002/03/25 17:07:00 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch: 6 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 1172 R/sec: 5 2002/03/25 17:09:40 tid=480 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Preparing to search (CCL). MARION Query: x21 2002/03/25 17:09:40 CCLQuery "x21" User: A1tpv9dq.002 Server: 5home Records 4 Lapse(msec.): 641 2002/03/25 17:09:41 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Fetch: 4 Server: 5home Lapse(msec): 125 R/sec: 32 2002/03/25 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.): 78 2002/03/25 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.): 93 2002/03/25 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.): 16 2002/03/25 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.): 172 A1tpv9dq.006 2002/03/25 17:20:19 Logout: Succeeded Session: A1tpv9dq.006 2002/03/25 17:20:19 tid=455 Releasing session: A1tpv9dq.006

  5. Graduate students in classics Who were the catalog users? Status Discipline

  6. Why were they using the catalog? Purpose for searching

  7. Where did the search terms come from? Source of information (n=63) Basis for formulating a search strategy (n=99)

  8. 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

  9. Which data elements were used? Data elements used in the searches Data elements reported as known

  10. A closer look at the search strategies • Did 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

  11. 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 CHI • subj: human computer interaction • x64: robert, louis (author) • kw: robert, louis • ti: robert, louis • au: robert, louis

  12. Searching particular fields (2) • 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 Mortals • au: Hernandez • Title searched first, then author • Correct match, but retried the search in a different field • x50: Elephants and Weep (title) • ti: Elephants and Weep • subj: 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

  13. Spelling problems • 8 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

  14. Upper/lower case • 15 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

  15. Author name order • Among 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

  16. Were the searches successful? Based on the searcher’s report

  17. Implications of the study • Users 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

  18. Questions? Photo credits Dr. 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.htm Book citation, Monash University Library, http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/psychol/psych04b.htm Journal citation, Monash University Library, http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/psychol/psych04d.htm Successful boy, Next Wave, http://www.nextwave.hu/stories.htm Hoax, future of home computers, Follow the Media, http://www.followthemedia.com/alldigital/dighome.htm

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