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

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

Interpreting the transaction logs 2002/03/25 17:06:52 tid=368 User logged in as: GUEST Session id: A1tpv9dq /03/25 17:06:52 Login:SucceededUser:GUESTSession:A1tpv9dq /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.001Server:5homeRecords17Lapse(msec.): /03/25 17:06:59 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch:11Server:5homeLapse(msec):750R/sec: /03/25 17:07:00 tid=368 sessid=A1tpv9dq.001 Fetch:6Server:5homeLapse(msec):1172R/sec:5 2002/03/25 17:09:40 tid=480 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Preparing to search (CCL). MARION Query: x /03/25 17:09:40 CCLQuery "x21" User: A1tpv9dq.002 Server:5homeRecords4Lapse(msec.): /03/25 17:09:41 tid=455 sessid=A1tpv9dq.002 Fetch:4Server:5homeLapse(msec):125R/sec: /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.003Server:3homeLapse(msec.): /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.004Server:3homeLapse(msec.): /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.005Server:3homeLapse(msec.): /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.006Server:3homeLapse(msec.):172 A1tpv9dq /03/25 17:20:19 Logout:SucceededSession:A1tpv9dq /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 students2641% Undergraduate students1625% Faculty1117% Staff and other1016% n% Humanities2447% Social sciences1835% Natural sciences714% Undeclared24%

Why were they using the catalog? Purpose for searching n% To support a course1930% To support dissertation research58% To support other research2438% For personal reasons1524%

Where did the search terms come from? n% References in books or databases3251% Professors or class readings lists1321% Personal sources711% Other sources1117% Source of information (n=63) Basis for formulating a search strategy (n=99) n% Formal source, i.e., database printout or published bibliography 99% Informal bibliographies11% Handwritten notes2424% Memory6566%

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 citation28 Author30 Title or partial title229 Author + title793 Other data elements112 No data elements213 Data elements reported as known

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

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

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 Searching particular fields (2)

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

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

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

Were the searches successful? Based on the searcher’s report n% Successful3576% Unsuccessful511% Collection failure613%

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

Questions? Photo credits Dr. Frederick G. Kilgour, SILS, UNC-CH, invest_faculty.htmlhttp://sils.unc.edu/support/ invest_faculty.html UNC classics students, grad_students.htmlhttp://classics.unc.edu/graduate/ grad_students.html Student studying, Monmouth College, schedule.htmhttp:// schedule.htm Book citation, Monash University Library, Journal citation, Monash University Library, Successful boy, Next Wave, Hoax, future of home computers, Follow the Media,