Sorry,
I needed to edit the link. This one should work:
http://tinyurl.com/3xcpu5
James Weinheimer j.weinheimer_at_aur.edu
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
via Pietro Roselli, 4
00153 Rome, Italy
voice- 011 39 06 58330919 ext. 327
fax-011 39 06 58330992
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Weinheimer Jim
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:15 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Browsing percentages / analytics
>
> If I may be allowed to do a little armchair analysis, these statistics
> seem to me to be based only on the initial search, i.e. when people first
> come to the catalog and type their search into the search box. If we want
> to measure the actual use of a catalog, it should be continued to include
> the hyperlinks based on the headings within the records. Therefore, if
> somebody thinks "I want Roman history in the time of Cicero," they would
> probably type in "roman history cicero" and get something like this: (this
> link searches princeton's catalog as a general keyword search, I think it
> will work)
> http://catalog.princeton.edu/cgi-
> bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SAB1=roman+history+cicero&BOOL1=all+of+these&FLD1=Keywor
> d+Anywhere+%28GKEY%29&GRP1=AND+with+next+set&SAB2=&BOOL2=all+of+these&FLD2
> =Keyword+Anywhere+%28GKEY%29&GRP2=AND+with+next+set&SAB3=&BOOL3=all+of+the
> se&FLD3=Keyword+Anywhere+%28GKEY%29&PID=UKW7ypc9EtTUuUe2aXbiQ0_MkZ&SEQ=200
> 80206045027&CNT=50&HIST=1
>
> and the user should be able to find the heading(s) that they really want;
> in this case: Rome --History --Republic, 265-30 B.C. (This is how the
> catalog is supposed to deal with natural language questions)
> In this example, the correct heading doesn't come up until record 15 (an
> earlier record has a "Fiction" example), so many users would probably have
> given up before finding the correct heading. Consequently, I would
> consider this an example of a failed search.
>
> In any case, I would think that a valid way of looking at the use of the
> catalog is how these headings are used: do people search first on keyword
> "mark twain" and then click on "Twain, Mark, 1835-1910" when they find a
> correct record? If so, something like this should be considered mostly a
> successful search. Very few people, including experienced catalogers, know
> the precise form of a name, title or subject heading, and will mostly opt
> for keyword as an initial search.
>
> If I am wrong in my assumption and the statistics are not based only on
> the initial search, but actually includes all the hypertext heading links,
> then this would be a serious problem for the catalog, since it would mean
> that people are not clicking on the headings once they are in a record. In
> other words, if somebody searches "leo tolstoi" and they see a relevant
> record with "Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910" and they do not click on that
> link, then this would indicate that there is something that needs to be
> fixed.
>
> Jim Weinheimer
>
>
> > Actual stats are at
> > <http:/
> > /lib.tamu.
> > edu/direct
> > ory/bponsf
> > or/opac-us
> > age-stats/
> > Count%20of
> > %20first%2
> > 0web%20searches%20-%20staff%20and%20public.xls/view>. Duh!
> >
> > Bennett
> >
> > >>> On 2/5/2008 at 12:54 PM, Bennett Ponsford
> > <BPonsfor_at_LIB-GW.TAMU.EDU> wrote:
> > > Additional rough stats on Which search users started with (our default
> is
> > > "keyword sorted by relevance"). Library people use
> > "keyword" and "title
> > > starts with" almost equally, however the public uses their most
> > popular title
> > > search (title keyword) less than 10% of the time. I was also
> > surprised by
> > > the number of the public who start with "expert keyword",
> > particularly in
> > > comparison to the usage by library types.
> > >
> > > In terms of talking to our users, we did a survey this fall and asked
> > people
> > > whether they had last searched the catalog for something where they
> already
> > > knew the author or title or something on a subject. 78% of
> > undergraduates
> > > searched by subject, whereas 64% of grad. students and 68% of faculty
> were
> > > looking for a known item. And the big theme of the follow-up
> > focus groups
> > > was: simplify, simplify, simplify. What we need is a simple
> > keyword search
> > > that guides undergraduates to what they need while not getting in the
> way
> > of
> > > people who know what they're looking for.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Bennett
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Bennett Claire Ponsford
> > > Digital Services Librarian
> > > University Libraries
> > > Texas A&M University
> > > bennett.ponsford_at_tamu.edu
> > >
> > > TAMU 5000 | College Station, TX 77843
> > >
> > > Tel. 979.845.0877 | Fax. 979.845.6238
> > >
> > >
> > > http://library.tamu.edu
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >>>> On 2/5/2008 at 10:55 AM, Karen Coyle <kcoyle_at_KCOYLE.NET>
> > wrote:
> > >> Janet Hill wrote:
> > >>> Repeat after me: There is no typical
> > user. There is no typical user.
> > >>> There is no typical user.
> > >>> Persuade us with actual data, carefully collected, clearly
> > defined, and
> > >>> thoughtfully considered.
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> And in that spirit, the first question that came to my mind when I
> > >> looked at Selden Deemer's stats was: I'd really like to know WHO did
> > >> those searches. Not individually, but in some grouping. In
> particular,
> > >> I'd like to see the stats for staff use separated from non-staff.
> This,
> > >> of course, is not going to be 100% accurate because most of the time
> we
> > >> don't ask people to identify themselves at public access points. But
> at
> > >> least in the back rooms and on any machine with a staff sign-in. It
> > >> could turn out that there are some important staff needs that should
> be
> > >> addressed, even if those features are rarely used by the public.
> > >>
> > >> Then overall statistics can help us make design decisions: what
> > >> functions have to be very efficient because they will be used
> > >> frequently? What functions can we provide in a less efficient manner
> > >> because they are rarely used and don't impact overall response time?
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> -----------------------------------
> > >> Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
> > >> kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
> > >> ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
> > >> fx.: 510-848-3913
> > >> mo.: 510-435-8234
> > >> ------------------------------------
Received on Wed Feb 06 2008 - 06:07:54 EST