An empirical analysis of Web catalog user experiences

Information Technology and Libraries

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 148-157

  Halcoussis, Dennis ^a   Halverson, Aniko L ^b   Lowenberg, Anton D ^a   Lowenberg, Susan ^b  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0036921941     PISSN: 07309295     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. David W. Lewis, "Research on the Use of Online Catalogs and Its Implications for Library Practice," Journal of Academic Librarianship 13, no. 3 (July 1987): 152-57.
2. Ibid, 156.
3. Karen M. Drabenstott and Marjorie S. Weller, "Failure Analysis of Subject Searches in a Test of a New Design for Subject Access to Online Catalogs," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 47, no. 7 (July 1996): 519-37.
4. Ray R. Larson, "The Decline of Subject Searching: Long-Term Trends and Patterns of Index Use in an Online Catalog," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42, no. 3 (Apr. 1991): 197-215.
5. Joseph R. Matthews, Gary S. Lawrence, and D.K. Ferguson, Using Online Catalogs: A Nationwide Survey-A Report of a Study Sponsored by the Council on Library Resources (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1983).
6. Carol A. Hert and Michael S. Nilan, "User-Based Information Retrieval System Interface Evaluation: An Examination of an On-Line Public Access Catalog," in Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science (Washington, D.C.: American Society for Information Science, 1991), 170-77.
7. Larson, "The Decline of Subject Searching," 208-10.
8. Nicholas J. Belkin et al., "Taking Account of User Tasks, Goals, and Behavior for the Design of Online Public Access Catalogs," in Proceedings of the 53d Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science (Toronto: American Society for Information Science, 1990), 69-79.
9. Sharon Seymour, "Online Public Access Catalog User Studies: A Review of Research Methodologies, March 1986-November 1989," Library and Information Science Research 13 (Apr.-June 1991): 89-102; Jon R. Hufford, "Use Studies and OPACS," Technical Services Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1991): 57-70.
10. Sharon Seymour, "Online Public Access Catalog User Studies: A Review of Research Methodologies, March 1986-November 1989," Library and Information Science Research 13 (Apr.-June 1991): 89-102; Jon R. Hufford, "Use Studies and OPACS," Technical Services Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1991): 57-70.
11. Seymour, "Online Public Access Catalog User Studies," 100.
12. Pat Ensor, "User Characteristics of Keyword Searching in an OPAC," College and Research Libraries 53 (Jan. 1992): 72-80.
13. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, "Student Use of Online Catalogs and Other Information Channels," College and Research Libraries 57 (Mar. 1996): 161-75.
14. Iljong Kenneth Park, "Comparing Major U.S. OPAC Systems for Developing Countries," Libri 47, no. 4 (Dec. 1997): 234-42.
15. Elisabeth Sinnott, "Fewer Errors Resulting from the Users' Misconception of the OPAC in 1992 than a Decade Ago: A Comparative Study of No Direct Hits and Zero Hits in Author Searches," Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1993): 75-101.
16. Deborah D. Blecic et al., "A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of OPAC Screen Changes on Searching Behavior and Searcher Success," College and Research Libraries 60, no. 6 (Nov. 1999): 515-30.
17. Larson, "The Decline of Subject Searching."
18. We use the term "known item search" in the sense in which it is generally used In the literature, i.e., to refer to any search other than a subject search. A legitimate argument can be made, however, that keyword and even title word searches are frequently forms of subject searching and that an author search is not a known item search in the case of a search for additional works by a given author.
19. During summer and holiday breaks, most catalog users are library staff, faculty, and graduate students.
20. Stephen E. Wiberley Jr., Robert Allen Daugherty, and James A. Danowski, "User Persistence in Scanning Postings of a Computer-Driven Information System: LCS," Library and Information Science Research 12 (Oct.-Dec. 1990): 341-53.
21. Charles R. Hildreth, "The Use and Understanding of Keyword Searching in a University Online Catalog," Information Technology and Libraries 16 (June 1997): 52-62.
22. Alexandra Dimitroff, "Mental Models Theory and Search Outcome in a Bibliographic Retrieval System," Library and Information Science Research 14 (Apr.-June 1992): 141-56.
23. Drabenstott and Weller, "Failure Analysis of Subject Searches in a Test of a New Design for Subject Access to Online Catalogs."
24. Belkin et al., "Taking Account of User Tasks, Goals, and Behavior for the Design of Online Public Access Catalogs."
25. Hert and Nilan, "User-based Information Retrieval System Interface Evaluation."
26. Joan M. Cherry, "Improving Subject Access in OPACs: An Exploratory Study of Conversion of Users' Queries," Journal of Academic Librarianship 18, no. 2 (May 1992): 95-99.
27. Rosemary Thorne and Jo Bell Whitlach, "Patron Online Catalog Success," College and Research Libraries 55 (Nov. 1994): 479-97.
28. Judy Anderson, "Have Users Changed Their Style? A Survey of CD-ROM vs. OPAC Product Usage," RQ 34, no. 3 (spring 1995): 362-68.
29. These questions are similar to those in the exit questionnaire used by Belkin et al., "Taking Account of User Tasks, Goals, and Behavior for the Design of Online Public Access Catalogs."
30. On the calculation of required sample size in the case of a finite population, see Robert B. Jackson, Confidence Intervals and Sample Sizes for One Variable, 1999. Accessed Jan. 4, 2001, http://soaisweb.byu.edu/courses/ISYS580/Modules/stats/STA-CH10.HTM.
31. Changing the default categories does not affect the remaining results.
32. The ordinal regression method takes account of the fact that respondents might not consider the differences between numerical answer choices to be equal. For example, a respondent might feel that the difference between a 4 and a 5 on a five-point scale is greater than the difference between a 2 and a 3. In an ordinal regression, what matters is the ordinal ranking of the responses, not the numerical distances between numbers. See Peter McCullagh, "Regression Models for Ordinal Data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 42, ser. B, no. 2 (1980): 109-42. Note that ordinal regression equations, such as those estimated in tables 1-3, do not contain a constant term. Table 4, which displays the results of a logit regression, does contain a constant term.
33. The regression in table 4 is just one example drawn from a series of regressions, varying slightly in specification, that all gave similar results.
34. The Keyword variable now becomes the control category for search type.
35. Staff make up only 1 percent of the sample.
36. The binomial logit model is based on the cumulative logistic function in which the natural logarithm of p/(1 - p) is regressed on a linear function of the independent variables, where p is the probability that the binary dependent variable is equal to one. See Peter Kennedy, A Guide to Econometrics, 2d ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 1985), 189-202; Jan Kmenta, Elements of Econometrics, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 550-53; and A.H. Studenmund and Henry J. Cassidy, Using Econometrics: A Practical Guide (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987), 174-75.
37. The binomial logit model is based on the cumulative logistic function in which the natural logarithm of p/(1 - p) is regressed on a linear function of the independent variables, where p is the probability that the binary dependent variable is equal to one. See Peter Kennedy, A Guide to Econometrics, 2d ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 1985), 189-202; Jan Kmenta, Elements of Econometrics, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 550-53; and A.H. Studenmund and Henry J. Cassidy, Using Econometrics: A Practical Guide (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987), 174-75.
38. The binomial logit model is based on the cumulative logistic function in which the natural logarithm of p/(1 - p) is regressed on a linear function of the independent variables, where p is the probability that the binary dependent variable is equal to one. See Peter Kennedy, A Guide to Econometrics, 2d ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 1985), 189-202; Jan Kmenta, Elements of Econometrics, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 550-53; and A.H. Studenmund and Henry J. Cassidy, Using Econometrics: A Practical Guide (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987), 174-75.
39. At the same time that the CalArts Library conducted this observation study, it also conducted a usability test of the Web catalog. The usability test, which required only eight participants, was more helpful in identifying screen design and navigational changes that could be made to clarify functions of the Web catalog and improve search success. The design changes identified through the usability study were put into effect in the stammer of 2000 and a second round of usability testing is currently underway to determine whether these changes produced significant improvements in users' success.