Subject No-hits Searches in an Academic Library Online Catalog: An Exploration of Two Potential Ameliorations

College and Research Libraries

Volumn 65, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 36-54

  Graham, Rumi Y ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0842325297     PISSN: 00100870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/crl.65.1.36     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Joseph R. Matthews, Gary S. Lawrence, and Douglas K. Ferguson, eds., Using Online Catalogs: A Nationwide Survey: A Report of a Study Sponsored by the Council on Library Resources (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1983).
2. Karen Markey, "Users and the Online Catalog: Subject Access Problems," in The Impact of Online Catalogs, ed. Joseph R. Matthews (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1986).
3. Carol A. Mandel, "Enriching the Library Catalog Record for Subject Access," Library Resources & Technical Services 29 (Jan./Mar. 1985): 5-15.
4. Markey, "Subject-Searching Experiences and Needs of Online Catalog Users: Implications for Library Classification," Library Resources & Technical Services 29 Qan./Mar. 1985): 34-51.
5. Alex Byrne and Mary Micco, "Improving Opac Subject Access: The ADFA Experiment," College & Research Libraries 49 (Sept. 1988): 432-41.
6. Shirley Anne Cousins, "Enhancing Subject Access to Opacs: Controlled Vocabulary vs Natural Language," Journal of Documentation 48 (Sept. 1992): 291-309.
7. Mia Massicotte, "Improved Browsable Displays for Online Subject Access," Information Technology and Libraries 7 (Dec. 1988): 373-80.
8. Jeffrey C. Huestis, "Clustering LC Classification Numbers in an Online Catalog for Improved Browsability," Information Technology and Libraries 7 (Dec. 1988): 381-93.
9. Dorothy McGarry and Elaine Svenonius, "More on Improved Browsable Displays for Online Subject Access," Information Technology and Libraries 10 (Sept. 1991): 185-91.
10. Martha M. Yee, "System Design and Cataloging Meet the User: User Interfaces to Online Public Access Catalogs," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42 (Mar. 1991): 78-98
11. Mark T. Kinnucan, "Fisheye Views as an Aid to Subject Access in Online Catalogues," Canadian Journal of Information Science 17 (Jul. 1992): 25-40.
12. Tamas E. Doszkocs, "Cite NLM: Natural Language Searching in an Online Catalog," Information Technology and Libraries 2 (Dec. 1983): 364-80.
13. Stephen Walker, "Improving Subject Access Painlessly: Recent Work on the Okapi Online Catalogue Projects," Program 22 (Jan. 1988): 21-31.
14. Ray R. Larson, "Classification Clustering, Probabilistic Information Retrieval, and the Online Catalog," Library Quarterly 61 ((Apr. 1991): 133-73.
15. Mary Micco, "The Next Generation of Online Public Access Catalogs: A New Look at Subject Access Using Hypermedia," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 13, no. 3/4 (1991): 103-20.
16. Micheline Hancock-Beaulieu and Stephen Walker, "An Evaluation of Automatic Query Expansion in an Online Library Catalogue," Journal of Documentation 48 (Dec. 1992): 406-21.
17. Marcia J. Bates, "Subject Access in Online Catalogs: A Design Model," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 37 (Nov. 1986): 357-76.
18. Micheline Hancock, "Subject Searching Behaviour at the Library Catalogue and at the Shelves: Implications for Online Interactive Catalogues," Journal of Documentation 43 (Dec. 1987): 303-21.
19. Micheline Hancock-Beaulieu, "Evaluating the Impact of an Online Library Catalogue on Subject Searching Behaviour at the Catalogue and at the Shelves," Journal of Documentation 46 (Dec. 1990): 318-38.
20. The notion of "generations" of online catalogs was introduced by Charles R. Hildreth, "Pursuing the Ideal: Generations of Online Catalogs," in Online Catalogs, Online Reference: Converging Trends, ed. Brian Aveney and Brett Butler (Chicago: ALA, 1984).
21. Sandy Roe, "Online Subject Access," Journal of Internet Cataloging 2, no. 1 (1999): 69-78.
22. Chris Evin Long, "Improving Subject Searching in Web-based Opacs: Evaluation of the Problem and Guidelines for Design," Journal of Internet Cataloging 2, no. 3/4 (2000): 159-86.
23. In this paper, references to the University of Lethbridge catalog covering 1999 or later should be understood to be referring to the shared catalog of the University of Lethbridge and Medicine Hat College.
24. From 1990 to 1995, no-hits search results occurred most frequently in the subject index and second most frequently in the title index, but from 1996 this pattern has been reversed. The pattern reversal is likely due to increased searching in the various online periodical indexes, which became available to University of Lethbridge users in greater numbers from about 1996. To locate desired articles identified in online periodical index search results, users must search the online catalog title index, but in many cases these searches retrieve no records because the university owns a very small percentage of the journals indexed in the online periodical index databases available to its users.
25. Patricia Flaherty, "Transaction Logging Systems: A Descriptive Summary," Library Hi Tech 11, no. 2 (1993): 67-78.
26. Exploration of the third supposition was possible without the need to gather any additional data because transaction log data were monitored as a part of normal work responsibilities. It was not possible to pursue the additional resources and time to explore the other two suppositions at the time the study was conceived.
27. Thomas A. Peters, Martin Kurth, Patricia Flaherty, Beth Sandore, and Neal K. Kaske, "Transaction Log Analysis," Library Hi Tech 11, no. 2 (1993): 37.
28. Thomas A. Peters, "The History and Development of Transaction Log Analysis," Library Hi Tech 11, no. 2 (1993): 41-66.
29. Marilyn Ann Lester, "Coincidence of User Vocabulary and Library of Congress Subject Headings: Experiments to Improve Subject Access in Academic Library Online Catalogs," (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1989).
30. John E. Tolle, Current Utilization of Online Catalogs: Transaction Log Analysis, Final Report to the Council on Library Resources: Volume I of Three Volumes (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 1983).
31. Cheryl Kern-Simirenko, "OPAC User Logs: Implications for Bibliographic Instruction," Library Hi Tech 1 (winter 1983): 27-35.
32. Adeline Wilkes and Antoinette Nelson, "Subject Searching in Two Online Catalogs: Authority Control vs. Non-Authority Control," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 20, no. 4 (1995): 57-79.
33. Beverley Barrett and Margaret Maticka, "An Analysis of User Failure in Subject Searching an Online Catalogue," in Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Need for Quality in the Age of Automation, ed. Alan Bundy and Judith Bundy (Adelaide: Auslib Pr., 1990), 38-49.
34. Deborah D. Blecic, Josephine L. Dorsch, Melissa H. Koenig, and Nirmala S. Bangalore, "A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of OPAC Screen Changes on Searching Behavior and Searcher Success," College & Research Libraries 60 (Nov. 1999): 515-30.
35. Arlene G. Taylor, "Authority Files in Online Catalogs: An Investigation of Their Value," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 4, no, 3 (1984): 1-17.
36. 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 & Classification Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1993): 75-101.
37. Nirmala S. Bangalore, "Authority Files in Online Catalogs Revisited," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1995): 75-94.
38. _, "Mystery Names: Plausible Sounding Names Resulting in Zero Hits in Opacs," Technical Services Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1996): 15-31.
39. Jean Dickson, "An Analysis of User Errors in Searching an Online Catalog," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 4, no. 3 (1984): 19-38.
40. Pauline A. Cochrane, LCSH Entry Vocabulary Project: Final Report to the Council on Library Resources and to the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library Resources, 1983).
41. Jane Greenberg, "Reference Structures: Stagnation, Progress, and Future Challenges," Information Technology and Libraries 16 (Sep. 1997): 108-19.
42. The Innopac LIMIT feature becomes available only after a user has first conducted a search retrieving more than one record. Clicking on the LIMIT THIS SEARCH button presents a menu of criteria by which the original search may be limited or sorted. The third item in this menu allows limiting by "Words in the Author, Title, Subject, or Publisher." The default is "Words in the Author," but users may switch to one of the other choices through a pull-down menu.
43. Coding details for specific types of fields in MARC authority records are found in Marc 21 Format for Authority Data: Including Guidelines for Content Designation (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service, 1999).
44. Karen M. Drabenstott, Schelle Simcox, and Eileen G. Fenton, "End-user Understanding of Subject Headings in Library Catalogs," Library Resources & Technical Services 43 (Jul. 1999): 140-60.
45. Stephen E. Wiberley, Robert Allen Daugherty, and James A. Danowski, "User Persistence in Displaying Online Catalog Postings: LUIS," Library Resources & Technical Services 39 (July 1995): 247-64; Stephen E. Wiberley and Robert Allen Daugherty, "Users' Persistence in Scanning Lists of References," College & Research Libraries 49 (Mar. 1988): 149-56; Marcia J. Bates, "The Fallacy of the Perfect Thirty-Item Online Search," RQ 24 (fall 1984): 43-50.
46. Stephen E. Wiberley, Robert Allen Daugherty, and James A. Danowski, "User Persistence in Displaying Online Catalog Postings: LUIS," Library Resources & Technical Services 39 (July 1995): 247-64; Stephen E. Wiberley and Robert Allen Daugherty, "Users' Persistence in Scanning Lists of References," College & Research Libraries 49 (Mar. 1988): 149-56; Marcia J. Bates, "The Fallacy of the Perfect Thirty-Item Online Search," RQ 24 (fall 1984): 43-50.
47. Stephen E. Wiberley, Robert Allen Daugherty, and James A. Danowski, "User Persistence in Displaying Online Catalog Postings: LUIS," Library Resources & Technical Services 39 (July 1995): 247-64; Stephen E. Wiberley and Robert Allen Daugherty, "Users' Persistence in Scanning Lists of References," College & Research Libraries 49 (Mar. 1988): 149-56; Marcia J. Bates, "The Fallacy of the Perfect Thirty-Item Online Search," RQ 24 (fall 1984): 43-50.
48. In some cases, avoidance of large retrieval sets was not possible. For instance, the subject no-hits search for "America politics and government" was interpreted to be equivalent to the LCSH, "United States - Politics and government," and was therefore added as a cross-reference to the LCSH authority record. The number of records retrieved by the LCSH, "United States-Politics and government," however, exceeded a hundred.
49. Other researchers such as Barrett and Maticka, "An Analysis of User Failure" and Peters, "When Smart People Fail" created no-hits categories as part of their analyses of "failed" controlled vocabulary catalogue searches. However, the researcher determined that none of these schemes adequately covered the subject no-hits searches analyzed in the present study. Therefore, a customized categorization scheme was developed.
50. Allyson Carlyle discussed similar problems of LCSH "matching" studies in "Matching LCSH and User Vocabulary in the Library Catalog, " Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 10, no. 1/2 (1989): 37-63.
51. See sections H195, H373, and H200 9b in Library of Congress, Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings, 5th ed. 4 vols (Washington, D.C.: Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, 1996).
52. Pathfinder records were keyed as non-MARC bibliographic records. MARC and non-MARC bibliographic records can coexist in this catalog database (an Innopac system) with few differences in how they are indexed or displayed.
53. Although a formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the database enhancements was not within the scope of the present article, the library reference staff at the University of Lethbridge as a whole endorsed the idea of experimenting with enhancements 1 and 2 as possible ways to ameliorate catalog users' subject-searching problems. Over the course of the study, the author received unsolicited positive feedback on the database enhancements from several reference staff members and one problem with pathfinder records was reported, which was described in the study limitations section of this article.
54. Christine L. Borgman, "Why Are Online Catalogs Hard to Use? Lessons Learned from Information-Retrieval Studies," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 37 (Nov. 1986): 387-400.
55. Larson, "Between Scylla and Charybdis: Subject Searching in the Online Catalog," Advances in Librarianship 15 (1991): 175-236.
56. For example, see Carol L. Barry, "User-defined Relevance Criteria: An Exploratory Study," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45 (Apr. 1994): 149-59; and Stephen P. Harter, "Psychological Relevance and Information Science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 43 (Oct. 1992): 602-15.
57. For example, see Carol L. Barry, "User-defined Relevance Criteria: An Exploratory Study," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45 (Apr. 1994): 149-59; and Stephen P. Harter, "Psychological Relevance and Information Science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 43 (Oct. 1992): 602-15.
58. A useful overview of research on the meanings and uses of relevance in the context of information seeking and use is found in Linda Schamber, "Relevance and Information Behavior," Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 29 (1994): 3-48.
59. 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 (Apr. 1991): 197-215.
60. I b i d.
61. Joseph R. Matthews and Gary S. Lawrence, "Further Analysis of the CLR Online Catalog Project," Information Technology and Libraries 3 (Dec. 1984): 354-76.
62. Drabenstott, Simcox, and Fenton, "End-user Understanding of Subject Headings in Library Catalogs."
63. Markey, "Users and the Online Catalog."
64. Library of Congress, "Subject Cataloging Manual," H200 9b.
65. Elaine Svenonius, "Design of Controlled Vocabularies," in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, v. 45, suppl. 10, ed. Allen Kent (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990), 82-109.