Introduction and Background Methodology and Interpretation of the results Discussion and Conclusion.

An analysis of web searches in a South African academic Online Public Access Catalogue

Solvej VorsterUniversity of Cape Town

7th June 201211th Southern African Online Information Meeting

Presentation outline

Introduction and Background

Methodology and Interpretation of the results

Discussion and Conclusion

Fact: There is a continued reliance on print

and physical collections at UCT Libraries

Library Circulation statistics and OPAC transactions are not significantly decreasing

Year Number of loans2000 373 7732001 420 6222002 501 3392003 563 1222004 542 1542005 508 2552006 444 7402007 436 3202008 415 9952009 410 6162010 424 7032011 381 815

Circulation of items 2000-2010

Year Opac transactions

2006 1 769 627

2007 1 646 879

2008 1 557 088

2009 1 545 516

2010 1 615 857

2011 1 537 283

Web OPAC transactions 2006-2010

OPAC transactions 2006-2011

Total number of OPAC transactions 2006-2011

Introduction and Background• Why study OPAC use? Questionable role of the OPAC in terms of

relevance, use and value

• Are there new ways of information seeking and are they changing the way patrons are searching the OPAC?

• How seriously should we consider calls to abandon LCSH cataloguing?

• What about the “classical functions of bibliographic control”?

• Are South African students following the same searching behaviour patterns shown elsewhere?

Methodology

• UCT implemented the Web OPAC in 1999 (Aleph® ILS system from Ex Libris)

• Since 2006 OPAC search records have been stored as Oracle tables

• Transactional Log Analysis (TLA) was rejected as a tool for data analysis in favour of SQL and other reporting tools

• No attempt was made to study or measure search success, nor measure user satisfaction

MethodologyEvents that are registered in the Z69 (Web OPAC events) Oracle table (Ex Libris, 2009): • Search Command - Multi field (find-a)• Search Command - Basic search (find-b)• Search Command - CCL (find-c)• Search Command - Advanced (find-d)• Search Command - Multi base (find-m)• Scan• Refine Search• Cross sets• My Library Card• Help• SDI Profile• Save• Z39 Server Search request• Z39 Server scan request

Search = Keyword searchScan = Alphabetical Browse search

Methodology

Description of the 4 Reports:

1. Types of OPAC searches

2. Browse Searches

3. Keyword Searches

4. Self mediated services in the OPAC (My Library Card) and the Help function

Interpretation of the Results

Searching and Browsing 2006 vs 2011

Keyword Searches

76%

Browse24%

2006

Keyword Searches

86%

Browse14%

2011

Type of browse search

Title Author

ISSN ISBN

Journal title Author & title Corporate authors Keywords from author System number Imprint Words from title Series PublisherCorporate authors Keywords from author Place of publication Keywords from place of publication

Keywords from publisher MeSH subjects, Subject, LC subject , Keywords from subject, Local thesaurus, LC subject subdivision Course code Location Department General keyword

Shelf mark Course code

Keywords from language code

Keywords from year Dewey classification number General keyword

Known ItemsSubjectsQualificationMetadataGeneral Keywords

Type of browse search No. %

Title 745 910 44.3Author 360 174 21.4Subject 248 010 14.7Shelf mark 120 180 7.1Journal title 115 976 6.9Author & title 24 050 1.4LC subject 18 656 1.1Course code 14 834 0.9System number 5 450 0.3ISBN 5 314 0.3

Top ten Web OPAC Browse searches



General keyword0%

Qualification metadata8%

Subject Searches16%

Known Item Searches76%

OPAC Browse Searches


"icts impact" AND "user""information technology impact" AND "libraries""internet" AND "information user""internet" AND "library""is branding evil""issues in Diagnosis""jazz" and "south africa""jim goes to joburg"

Actual Subject Browse searches in the OPAC showing inappropriate keyword and Boolean searching

Interpretation of the Results Type of keyword searchWordsW-titlesW-authorsISSNISBNBarcodeW-seriesW-publishersW-Unif.TitlesW-place of publW-subjectsW-ToCW-sublib.W-yearW-formatW-language codeW-thesesW-notesW-material type

W-collectionW-shelf

General keywordsKnown ItemsSubjectsQualification metadata


Type of keyword search Total PercentageWords 3 989 423 60.8W-titles 844 494 12.9W-authors 809 381 12.3W-subjects 215 963 3.3ISSN 193 505 2.9W-sublib. 119 463 1.8W-year 80 819 1.2W-format 77 804 1.2W-language code 77 027 1.2ISBN 73 683 1.1

Top ten web OPAC Keyword searches

General Keywords61%

Known Item Searches30%

Qualification Metadata6%

Subject searches3%

OPAC Keyword Searches



0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

Self Mediated services

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Help Function My Library card


• The study supports the trends in the literature which show decreasing use of subject searching in favour of keywords

• What is the role and importance of subject searching ? For whom?

• OPAC is rigid and unforgiving for untrained searchers

• OPACs still reflect 1.0 design in interface and ability

• Solutions?


• User studies

• User instruction

• “Hacker ethics” (Evans, W. 2009)

• Bibliobarbarism? (Berman, S. 2006)

Thank You!

[email protected]

Introduction and Background Methodology and Interpretation of the results Discussion and Conclusion.

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