Views on end-user searching

Abstract

Online searching is a changing, evolving portion of the information industry. During the past 10 years, it has moved from libraries into homes and offices creating a group of people called end-user searchers. The definition of end-user searchers distinguishes them from intermediary searchers, but a demographic profile is unavailable. End-user searchers perform online searches for a variety of reasons; past trends indicate that enduser searching will increase. This probable increase has significant implications for vendors and for intermediaries, as more and different customer demands will be made.The changes in the online searching portion of the information industry during the past decade have been dramatic. Ten years ago online searching was strictly for librarians, and the term end user applied to the people for whom librarians did searches. An end-user searcher seemed a contradiction in terms. Today end-user searchers are becoming a force in the marketplace and a topic of debate among librarians.For vendors, the issue is how to reach end-users and sell them on the joys of searching. For librarians, the issue is how to handle the hordes of searchers they expect to encounter. What Are End-User Searchers?It is helpful to start with a definition of end-user searchers. The term shows up in no standard dictionaries, although "end user" does appear in IBM's Vocabulary for Data Processing, Telecommunications, and Office Systems. The first definition given is "The ultimate source or destination of information flowing through a system" [ 11. The second meaning is "A person, process, program, device, or system that employs a user application network for the purpose of data processing and information exchange" [2]. Next is "In SNA, the ultimate source or destination of application data flowing through an SNA network. An end user may be an application pro- gram or a terminal operator [3]. The definition concludes with the comment "Contrast with customer" [4].Using this as a starting point, then, an "end-user searcher" can be defined as a person accessing online databases and performing search operations for the purpose of finding information to be used by that same person rather than another; end-user searching is done to answer questions posed by the searcher, in contrast with intermediary searcher. There is sometimes confusion regarding the term enduser searcher.Many people believe that intermediary searchers are those with a background in library or information science. They are the librarians and information managers rather than the market researchers and economists. Yet some intermediary searchers are not part of the library and information-science world. They are researchers asked to gather background data for someone higher up in their organization.With sufficient training and experience, they can be quite effective searchers.The key point in distinguishing between end-user searchers and intermediary searchers is the ultimate source or destination of the information. A chemist searching Chemical Abstracts as an adj...

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