User Searching Behaviors (and Interactive Retrieval Techniques)

within a Library Gateway

William H. Mischo

Mary C. Schlembach

David S. VessUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

November 13, 2008

DLF Fall Forum 2008

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

University of Illinois Library Gateway

• Gateway Portal introduced in September 2007– Guide users to appropriate information resources– Recommender system– Integration of resources– Help with search strategy formulation and refinement

• Custom Engineering Library portlet with fielded search approach

• Powered by metasearch system suite (Easy Search)

• Metasearch over 70 targets

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Questions• Will users find recommender approach

useful?• Can we characterize user information

seeking behaviors?• Can useful refinement and navigation

services be introduced within the Gateway?

• What will search sessions look like?

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Easy Search Features

• Recommender system• Transaction logs: 2.3 million user search

arguments, 2.5 million clickthroughs.• Analysis of search arguments, pattern checking• Result displays influenced by search arguments• AJAX driven display• Links into the native interfaces at the point of

completed search• NISO MXG support

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

User Studies• Markey’s two papers on End-User Studies -

JASIST 2007– 32 studies– Need for new OPAC studies– Library Portal/Gateway studies needed

• Spink and Jansen findings on Web searches– Short search sessions– Average search: 2.3 words – “Advanced features” not being utilized– Users typically look at first page of results only

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Search Assistance Technologies

• IMLS NLG grant, NSF NSDL grant, Mellon DLF Aquifer

• Deep transaction log analysis• Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR):

contextual suggestions & links• Search refinement and navigational

assistance• Goal is “smarter” system; address the Too

Few/Too Many problems

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Search Assistance Functions• Stopword removal• Term substitution• Spelling suggestions• Direct link prompts for frequently entered terms,

pathfinder topics. Partial term matches• Author search prompts• Suggested limiting to phrase and title word and

phrase searches• Dark target searches in background

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Author Search Patterns

• Robert A. Smith

• Smith, Robert A.

• Smith r. a.

• Smith RA

• Smith, RA

• R. Alan Smith

• Robert Smith

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Search Characterization• Analysis of sample of 3,000 searches• 49.4% “specific item” searches – book,

journal, article title and/or author– 7.4% of the 49.4% are author/title– 28.9% are author– 40.5% are monographic searches– 6.8% are index/abstract– 5.7% are journal article– 11.8% are journal title

• 17.96% of searches contain a name or organization– some are topical

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Search Arguments

• 10.4% Booleans (10.15% AND, 0.2% OR, 0.1% NOT)

• 7.9% Commas• 0.1% Parentheses• 4.9% Quotes• 20.5% Prepositions• 9.8% Spell Suggests

(31.5% are clicked)• 0.06% +• 0.05% Question form

• 40.4% Follow-ups– 10% are Author

• 6.7% Author redo link (17% clicked)

• 3% from phrase/title links

• 3.3% show Direct suggests (60.5% clicked)

2007 – 2008 Searches

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Gateway Tabs Distribution

• 47.7% Easy Search

• 25.1% Journal/Article Locator

• 13.6% Books

• 5.9% Journal Articles

• 0.02% Reference (Other)

• 2.8% Undergrad search

• 4.7% “Native Mode”

2007-2008 Easy Search -- Average 3.577 Words per Query

Words Number of Searches %

1 118,930 14.1

2 240,803 28.6

3 180,380 21.4

4 111,811 13.3

5 65,052 7.7

6 37,598 4.5

7 22,924 2.7

8 15,607 1.9

> 8 48,339 5.7

Total 841,444 100

2008-2009 Easy Search -- 3.758 Words per Query

Words Number of Searches %

1 33,054 12.3

2 70,719 26.3

3 56,584 21.1

4 44,251 16.5

5 21,730 8.1

6 12,430 4.6

7 7,598 2.8

8 5,212 1.9

> 8 16,786 6.3

Total 268,454 100

2008 Grainger Portlet (Fielded) -- 4.559 Words per Query

Words Number of Searches %

1 14,535 9.4

2 32,629 21.1

3 31,211 20.2

4 22,102 14.3

5 13,631 8.8

6 9,761 6.3

7 6,878 4.5

8 5,371 3.5

> 8 18,295 11.8

Total 154,413 100

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Clickthroughs• 30.2% Academic Search Premier• 24.9% Voyager Online Catalog• 8.5% Scopus• 7.1% ISI Web of Knowledge• 6.8% InfoTrac• 4.1% CARLI Statewide Catalog• 3.1% Springer E-Books• 2.7% E-Resource List• 1.7% Google Books• 1.1% Amazon• 0.9% Google Scholar

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

What We Have Learned

• Broad continuum of searches being performed– topical, specific item

• Users expect sophisticated parsing – mental model

• Spell suggestions important• Must accommodate specific item search• Author search and fielded search• Used as Reference tool• Search assistance being utilized

DLF 2008 Fall Forum

Future• Guided search module – “Help Getting

Started”

• Tailored (vertical) search modules – dissertations, e-books, popular journal articles

• Faceted result displays

• Merging of results

• Agent approach

DLF 2008 Fall Forum