Undergraduate Use of Federated Searching: A Survey of Preferences and Perceptions of Value-added Functionality

Abstract

Randomly selected undergraduates at BrighamYoung University, Brigham Young University-Idaho, and Brigham Young University-Hawaii, all private universities sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participated in a study that investigated four questions regarding federated searching: (1) Does it save time? (2) Do undergraduates prefer it? (3) Are undergraduates satisfied with the results they get from it? (4) Does it yield higher-quality results than nonfederated searching? Federated searching was, on average, 11 percent faster than nonfederated searching. Undergraduates rated their satisfaction with the citations gathered by federated searching 17 percent higher than their satisfaction using nonfederated search methods. A majority of undergraduates, 70 percent, preferred federated searching to the alternative.This study could not ultimately determine which of the two search methods yielded higher citation quality. The study does shed light on assumptions about federated searching and will interest librarians in different types of academic institutions, given the diversity of the three institutions studied.ibrary research remains a complex, convoluted process for many undergraduates, in spite of the advances promised by the digital age. In their final report, the Bibliographic Services Task Force from the University of California Libraries states, "We offer a fragmented set of systems to search for published information (catalogs, A&I databases, full text journal sites, institutional repositories, etc) each with very different tools for identifying and obtaining materials. For the user, these distinctions are arbitrary."1 Federated searching a empts to collocate the information found in these fragmented systems and to provide one location to perform all library research. In this study, we investigated the assumptions that have been made about federated searching and studied undergraduates to determine if federated searching

Usability Test Results for a Discovery Tool in an Academic Library

“…Several articles have presented usability studies results for various federated searching products. 6 Fagan provided a thorough literature review of faceted browsing and next-generation catalogs. 7 Western Michigan University presented usability study results for the next-generation catalog VuFind, revealing that participants took advantage of the simple search box but did not use the next-generation catalog features of tagging, comments, favorites, and SMS texting.…”

Graduate Students and Federated Searching

“…Students are not interested in information quality; instead they are focused on finding full text articles and finishing research as quickly as possible. Students in a study by Belliston, Howland, and Roberts (2007) described a federated search as "faster, easier, simpler, and more efficient" (p. 478).…”

“…A number of recently published studies (Williams, Bonnell, & Stoffel, 2009;Korah & Cassidy, 2010;Armstrong, 2009;Belliston, Howland, & Roberts, 2007) have examined student perceptions of federated search tools and their preferences regarding different research tools. These studies have found that undergraduates prefer federated searching to individual databases.…”

Bridging the Gap: Understanding the Differing Research Expectations of First-Year Students and Professor

“…Other studies have explored the issue of student satisfaction with their research experience (Belliston, Howland, & Roberts, 2007;Martzoukou, 2008) and their satisfaction with library services (Gardner & Eng, 2005;Harwood & Bydder, 1998;Voelker, 2006). Findings suggest that students are generally happy with their research and library experiences (Gardner & Eng, 2005) but often prefer the convenience of their own homes when conducting research (Vondracek, 2007).…”