Jim Weinheimer wrote on 02/06/2008 05:15:19 AM:
> 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.
This is something I have been wondering for a long time. Whenever I read a
statement in the form, "Everyone does keyword searches; no one does
_______ searches," I wonder what it is based on. In our bibliographic
instruction sessions, we teach students to *start* with a keyword search,
perhaps an author's last name and a distinctive word in the title of a
known item. From there, it is possible to click on hyperlinks to find any
other works by the same author or any other works that represents the same
subject.
LCSH is so complicated and counter-intuitive that anyone who starts with a
subject search almost has to be guessing, but anyone who finds a record
and wants to find more like it can easily do a subject search from within
that record. My guess is that even people who have not gone through a
formal bibliographic instruction class or session can be curious as to
what happens if they click on a hyperlink. When they do, they have
stumbled on to an effective way to use the catalog. It ought to be easier
than it is to find that out deliberately, but the point is that we do not
know how people actually use the catalog unless we are analyzing user
behavior on an entire search session. And if we don't know what they
actually do, we cannot figure out how to design systems to help them do it
more easily. Statements in the form "Everyone does keyword searches; no
one does _______ searches" don't help anyone.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
David Guion
Music Cataloger
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Jackson Library
320 College Ave.
Greensboro, NC 27412
(336) 334-5781
dmguion_at_uncg.edu
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Received on Wed Feb 06 2008 - 08:57:10 EST