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