discovery layers and the distance student online search habits of students rosie croft, university...
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Discovery layers and the distance studentOnline search habits of students
Rosie Croft, University Librarian
Jessica Mussell, Instruction & Public Services Librarian
Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada
Memphis, TN, April 2012
Learning outcomes
0To provide a greater understanding of:0 How the implementation of discovery layers has affected
students use of research tools0 What this means for a Library’s return on investment0 How this informs electronic pathways to information
and impacts information literacy instruction
Royal Roads UniversityVictoria, British Columbia, Canada
Small, primarily graduate-level university2,000 FTE
Why discovery layers?
0Fiscal responsibility0Service to our user community
Our researchMethodsResults
RRU Library website
RRU Library mobile site
Methods
0Mixed-method approach:0 Combination of electronic survey and empirical data
0Data collected from:0 All students registered in for-credit courses invited to
participate in the survey (Survey Monkey)0 Summon usage statistics 0 Serials Solutions 360 link statistics 0 individual database usage statistics0 Library website0 LibGuides usage statistics
Results
01038 survey responses0822 of those students let us know which library
resources they had used in the past0 66% had used Summon0 67% reported using proxied Google Scholar0 75% had used what we defined as “publisher research
databases”0 51% had used Refworks0 Less than 50% response rate on resources like the
catalogue, subject guides, Infoquest tutorial
“What online research resource did you *start* with?042% said Google/Google Scholar026% said Library databases022% said Summon03% said Library catalogue01.9% said the subject guides01.7% said Wikipedia01.1% said contacted a librarian00.6% said Infoquest
“Why there?”
0Google – ease of use, broad overview two most highly cited reasons
0Summon – ease of use, good overview, credible resources
0Library databases – academic quality of results, focused results set, recommended, and habit0 Ease of use mentioned but was one of the least noted
reasons81% of students said that they used other online research resources as well as their first choice
How helpful were the results?
Not useful Marginally useful
Helpful Essential Did not use Response count
Google 23 (3.1%) 165 (22.6%) 291 (39.8%) 187 (25.6%) 65 (8.9%) 731Google Scholar 7 (0.9%) 75 (10.2%) 291 (39.4%) 261 (35.4%) 104 (14.1%) 738Wikipedia 55 (8.0%) 201 (29.2%) 238 (34.5%) 52 (7.5%) 143 (20.8%) 689Summon™ (search box on the library homepage)
17 (2.4%) 61 (8.6%) 206 (29.0%) 280 (39.4%) 146 (20.6%) 710
Publisher research databases (e.g. EBSCOhost, etc.)
10 (1.3%) 22 (2.95) 152 (20.1%) 484 (64.1%) 87 (11.5%) 755
Library catalogue 15 (2.2%) 57 (8.3%) 215 (31.3%) 128 (18.6%) 273 (39.7%) 688Resources by subject guides
20 (2.9%) 64 (9.4%) 174 (25.6%) 85 (12.5%) 337 (49.6%) 680
Answered questionSkipped question
788
251
Did Summon improve your ability to research effectively?061.4% said yes010.2% said no028.4% said they hadn’t used Summon
How important are the following features in any online research resource?
Not useful Marginally useful
Important Essential Response count
Advanced search option 13 (1.7%) 114 (14.9%) 381 (49.8%) 257 (33.6%) 765Folder or marked list feature 98 (13.7%) 288 (40.3%) 251 (35.2%) 77 (10.8%) 714Ability to limit or sort by date 19 (2.5%) 149 (19.7%) 383 (50.5%) 207 (27.3%) 758Ability to limit to scholarly articles only
9 (1.2%) 79 (10.4%) 333 (43.7%) 341 (44.8%) 762
Ability to sort by relevance 5 (0.7%) 92 (12.2%) 373 (49.3%) 287 (37.9%) 757Auto-generated search refinements tips (e.g. “did you mean…”)
39 (5.2%) 269 (36.0%) 325 (43.5%) 114 (15.3%) 747
Ability to export to a citation manager
43 (5.8%) 165 (22.1%) 304 (40.8%) 234 (31.4%) 746
Ability to search by subject headings
14 (1.9%) 114 (15.2%) 389 (51.8%) 234 (31.2%) 751
Answered questionSkipped question
777
262
Where did you start vs has Summon helped?
Think about your most recent assignment for which you had to do research. What online resource did you start with? (Please select just one)
Has the Summon™ search service on the library website improved your ability to research effectively?
Yes No Have not used Summon™
Response count
Google 67 (13.8%) 23 (28.6%) 65 (29%) 155 (19.7%)Google Scholar 106 (21.9%) 18 (22.5%) 46 (20.5%) 170 (21.6%)Wikipedia 6 (1.2%) 0 (0%) 8 (3.6%) 14 (1.8%)Summon™ (primary search box on the library homepage)
171 (35.3%) 7 (8.8%) 0 (0%) 178 (22.6%)
Publisher research database (e.g. EBSCOhost, etc.)
101 (20.9%) 28 (35.0%) 79 (35.3%) 208 (26.4%)
Library catalogue 15 (3.1%) 0 (0%) 11 (4.9%) 26 (3.3%)Contacted a librarian for help 4 (0.8%) 2 (2.5%) 3 (1.3%) 9 (1.1%)‘Resources by Program’ guides 8 (1.7%) 0 (0%) 7 (3.1%) 15 (1.9%)Infoquest Tutorial 2 (0.4%) 2 (2.5%) 1 (0.4%) 5 (0.6%)Other (please specify) 4 (0.8%) 0 (0%) 4 (1.8%) 8 (1.0%)Answered question 484 80 224 788
Non-survey data
0Pulled stats from Summon admin, key databases, website stats0 Overall database use remained consistent0 Big increase in Serials Solutions “click through” stats,
likely indicating that students are increasingly avoiding the native interfaces
0 Libguide use is about 11% or less of the visits to the library website
0 Where do we go from here?
Impact on information literacy instruction
Changes to instruction
0 “[a]ccessibility is likely (rightly or wrongly) to be favoured over quality as a determinant of choice by the student users….”
Brophy, J., & Bawden, D. (2005). Is Google enough? Comparison of an Internet search engine with academic library resources. Aslib Proceedings, 57(6), 498. doi:10.1108/00012530510634235
Changes to instruction
0Less focus on using the library catalogue and specialized databases (at least initially)
0More focus on using Summon and Google Scholar via RRU, with strategies to narrow searches
Changes to instructionBroad, interdisciplinary search engines
Google Scholar
Summon
Specialized databases
More focused, subject-specific search engines
Changes to instruction
0Database ‘hackfest’0 Sample research question0 Talk about strengths & weaknesses of search tools0 Search features for narrowing results0 Search features for broadening results0 Barriers encountered
Online instruction materials
07% of students reported using LibGuides04% of students reported using the Infoquest Tutorial
Conclusion• Return on investment• 81% of students search more than one resource when
researching• Importance of regular feedback
