Re: who is the primary user?

I agree that we need to examine /how /patrons use the catalog to
determine if they are /finding/ vs /searching/. I have been using the
search transaction logs in our system to determine which subject
searches retrieve no hits. After examining the results the patron sees -
i.e. where does the "no results" search take them in the index, I add
the term used as a 4xx see reference in our authority files. The 4xx see
reference will then take the patron to a catalog message that the term
is not used in this catalog but to search using the "subject heading"
listed which links directly to the subject term.

While this referral directs the patron to the "term used" it is
nonetheless an intermediary step and click. What I would really like is
a natural language interpretation within the catalog software that
authomatically directs the patron to the correct term of the controlled
vocabulary, seamlessly. Maintain the controlled vocabulary but make it
invisible to patron. And yes, there are a gazillion problems with this
thought but its patron friendly and merits exploration. It may even be
working somewhere in a library - anyone?

Holly Ledvina





K.G. Schneider wrote:

>I'm less interested in defining who users are than examining what they do
>and working backwards from that premise.
>
>I have a hypothesis: search logs (not transaction logs; but special logs
>that generate information about search behavior) for a wide variety of
>libraries would yield highly similar data on the types of queries performed
>by users-right down to top queries, lowest queries, top successes, top no
>hits, and patterns such as number of terms and complexity of queries.
>
>I have a bet: most libraries don't generate search logs or any similar
>search analytics for their user behavior. Much, much discussion; little,
>little data.
>
>I have an observation: companies such as Google aren't spending a lot of
>time worrying about their various "communities."  That's not to say that
>it's necessarily bad to do so... but as an initial preoccupation, we may be
>barking up the wrong tree.
>
>Why don't we start from the user data and work backwards? Re search logs,
>I'll show you mine if you show me yours...and we aren't even an OPAC (though
>due to our name a lot of users think we are, as our logs show-something we'd
>like to address by building better no-results pages).
>
>Karen G. Schneider
>kgs_at_bluehighways.com
>
>

--
Holly Ledvina
Catalog Librarian
Outagamie Waupaca Library System
225 N. Oneida Street, Appleton, WI 54911
hledvina_at_mail.owls.lib.wi.us
920-832-6386

"If we are to have an educated and informed population we need a strong and open library system supported by a committed administration.  We cannot call for a revival of quality education in America and close our libraries.  We cannot ask our children to learn to read and take away their books."  Jimmy Carter.