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Purpose -This paper aims to examine the behaviour of the Egyptian scholars while accessing electronic resources through two federated search tools. The main purpose of this article is to provide guidance for federated search tool technicians and support teams about user issues, including the need for training. Design/methodology/approach -Log files were exploited to examine the behaviour of users of information retrieval systems. This study examined two log files extracted from federated search tools available to the Egyptian scholars' community for accessing electronic resources. A data mining approach was implemented to investigate user behaviour through deep analysis of these logs. Findings -Results show that: none of the available tools provide error messages for dummy queries; most of the Egyptian scholars had short queries; Boolean operators are not used in about 50 per cent of the queries; federated search tools do not provide techniques for query reformation; the optimal days for system maintenance are the non-weekend vacations; and early morning is the best time for maintenance. Practical implications -To maximise the value of the federated search tools by understanding user trends when utilising federated search tools. The study shows that more attention should be given to the search capabilities through ongoing training and awareness in order to maximise the benefit from the available resources and tools. Originality/value -The hypothetical value of the federated search tools has not been previously examined and analysed to understand user trends.

Purpose -To explore the impact of using metadata in finding and ranking web pages through search engines. Design/methodology/approach -The study has been divided into two phases. In phase one, the use of metadata schemes and the impact of overlapped documents have been examined by employing the usability technique. Phase two examined the impact of adding metadata elements to web pages in their original rank order, using the experimental method. This study focuses on indexing web pages using metadata and its impact on search engine's rankings. Findings -Meta tags are more widely used than Dublin Core. The overlapped pages tend to include metadata. The second phase shows that by adding metadata elements to web pages, it raises its rank order. However, this depends on the quality of the description and the metadata schemes. The study shows no great difference in page ranking between adding meta tags and Dublin Core. Practical implications -To maximize the impact of metadata, more attention should be given to keyword and descriptive fields. Originality/value -The hypothetical relationship between overlapped pages and the inclusion of metadata and indexing by search engines had not been previously examined.

Purpose – This study aims to explore a framework for evaluating and comparing two federated search tools (FSTs) using two different retrieval protocols: XML gateways and Z39.50. FSTs are meta-information retrieval systems developed to facilitate the searching of multiple resources through a single search box. FSTs allow searching of heterogeneous platforms, such as bibliographic and full-text databases, online public access catalogues, web search engines and open-access resources. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed framework consists of three phases: the usability testing, retrievability performance assessment and overall comparison. The think-aloud protocol was implemented for usability testing and FSTs retrieval consistency, and precision tests were carried out to assess the retrievability performance for 20 real user queries. Findings – Participants were directed to assign weights for the interface usability and system retrievability importance as indicators for FST evaluation. Results indicated that FSTs retrievability performance was of more importance than the interface usability. Participants assigned an average weight of 62 per cent for the system retrievability and 38 per cent for interface usability. In terms of the usability test, there was no significant difference between the two FSTs, while minor differences were found regarding retrieval consistency and precision at 11-point cut-off recall. The overall evaluation showed that the FST based on the XML gateway rated slightly higher than the FST based on the Z39.50 protocol. Research limitations/implications – This empirical study faced several limitations. First, the lack of participants’ familiarity with usability testing created the need for a deep awareness and rigorous supervision. Second, the difficulties of empirically assessing participants’ perspectives and future attitudes called for mixing between a formal task and the think-aloud protocol for participants in a real environment. This has been a challenge that faced the collection of the usability data including user behaviour, expectations and other empirical data. Third, the differences between the two FSTs in terms of number of connectors and advanced search techniques required setting rigorous procedures for testing FSTs retrieval consistency and precision. Practical implications – This paper has practical implications in two dimensions. First, its results could be utilized by FST developers to enhance their product’s performance. Second, the framework could be used by librarians to evaluate FSTs performance and capabilities. The framework enables them to compare between library systems in general and FSTs in particular. In addition to these practical implications, the authors encourage researchers to use and enhance the proposed framework. Social implications – Librarians can use the proposed framework to empirically select an FST, involving users in the selection procedures of these information retrieval systems, so that it accords with users’ perspectives ...