LibraryFind: System design and usability testing of academic metasearch system

Abstract

Using off-the-shelf search technology provides a single point of access into library resources, but we found that such commercial systems are not entirely satisfactory for the academic library setting. In response to this, Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries designed and deployed LibraryFind, a metasearch system. We conducted a usability experiment comparing LibraryFind, the OSU Libraries Web site, and Google Scholar. Each participant used all three search systems in a controlled setting, and we recorded their behavior to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of each search system. In this article, we focus on understanding what factors are important to undergraduates in choosing their primary academic search system for class assignments. Based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results, we found that mimicking commercial Web search engines is an important factor to attract undergraduates; however, when undergraduates use these kinds of search engines, they expect similar performance to Web search engines, including factors such as relevance, speed, and the availability of a spell checker. They also expected to be able to find out what kinds of content and materials are available in a system. Participants' prior experience using academic search systems also affected their expectations of a new system. IntroductionToday's academic library Web sites serve as gateways to digitally accessible library resources, ranging from full-text newspaper and journal articles to online catalogs of physical collections. Yet, undergraduate students often use Web-based search engines as primary tools to find class-related information not only because they are familiar with Web-based search engines (Augustine & Greene, 2002;Notovny, 2004) but also because they struggle to use library Web sites as a gateway for finding information (Chisman, Diller, & Walbridge, 1999; Eliason, McKinstry, & Fraser, 1997;Notovny, 2004;Stephan, Cheng, & Young, 2006;Yakel, 2004).Many researchers in library and information science focus on improving library Web sites so that navigating library services is easy. These include local resources (e.g., the library catalog) as well as databases offered by third-party vendors (e.g., Academic Search Premier). Yet, navigation remains difficult for novice users unfamiliar with exploiting the multiplicity of library services: They do not know where to start in part because they do not know which databases are appropriate for their current information need (Eliason et al., 1997;Stephan et al., 2006). Novice users also find it difficult to identify useful documents from the returned results (Eliason et al., 1997;Stephan et al., 2006). Undergraduates expect disparate library resources to be aggregated so that a single query will return satisfactory results (Augustine & Greene, 2002;Notovny, 2004).One promising approach to these persistent issues is simplifying the search rather than constantly revising the library Web site to improve navigation. For that reason, researchers are experimenting wi...

Desarrollo de un Sistema de Recuperación de Información para Publicaciones Científicas del Área de Ciencias de la Computación

“…Si bien se han detectado diversas iniciativas tendientes a la generación de SRI de propósito específico en áreas particulares, como por ejemplo en ciencias de la salud [7], u otras con un perfil de aplicación más general [8], inclusive algunas que realizan búsquedas de referencias bibliográficas [9]; no se ha encontrado evidencia de la existencia de implementaciones de SRI que sean aplicadas específicamente a bases de datos de documentos científicos pertenecientes al área de ciencias de la computación. Tampoco de productos de este tipo que implementen soluciones complementarias para resolver aspectos clave como son la expansión de las consultas del usuario considerando el contexto de la búsqueda y la aplicación de métodos de evaluación de los documentos en base a la calidad de los mismos con la finalidad de mejorar la relevancia de los elementos del listado de resultados a presentar al usuario.…”

Students and Federated Searching

“…Users also expect relevance, speed, and spell-check functions that are comparable to popular search engines. 7 Meeting these expectations can be a challenge. Users often perceive federated searches as slow: a federated search generally takes longer than a search in the typical Internet search engine because data is gathered across multiple databases from various vendors, some of which may respond very slowly.…”

One box to search them all

“…For resources that can't be searched through the federated search product, the library either has to write a custom connector or pay the vendor to write one. Most vendor hosted products force libraries to pay if they want to include locally hosted content (Jung et al, 2008;Boock, Nichols and Kristick, 2006). A Googlesque search of a few full text resources is usually provided, and resources are typically selected due to response time and coverage (Grimes, 2007;Herrera, 2007;Jung et al, 2008;Newton and Silberger, 2007;See Boock, Nichols and Kristick, 2006;Cervone, 2005).…”

“…From a technical perspective, many librarians involved with maintaining these systems complain about a lack of standardization between vendors in how searches are transmitted and how results are received (Bracke, Howse and Keim, 2008;Calhoun, 2005;Jung et al, 2008;McHale, 2007;Elliott, 2004;Warren, 2007;Boock, Nichols and Kristick, 2006;Webster, 2007). For resources not compatible with federated search, the library can either use HTML 'screen-scrape' or omit these resources altogether.…”