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May 2012

Mary C. Schlembach, William H. Mischo, Joshua Bishoff, Elizabeth M. German Grainger Engineering Library Information Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Modeling User Searching Behaviors and Search Assistance Usage via Transaction Logs: Everything You Know is Wrong.

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May 2012

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  1. Mary C. Schlembach, William H. Mischo, Joshua Bishoff, Elizabeth M. German Grainger Engineering Library Information Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Modeling User Searching Behaviors and Search Assistance Usage via Transaction Logs: Everything You Know is Wrong May 2012

  2. Today’s Library Gateways • Academic libraries are moving from federated broadcast search systems to webscale discovery systems (WDS) with centralized aggregated indexing • Web 2.0 library systems give users single-entry search boxes with faceted limiting operations • As we transition to WDS, understanding and supporting user search behaviors is important

  3. What do we know about User Searching? • Web search engine studies show: 2.4 terms per query, 72% of sessions are single queries • There is little use of advanced features • OPAC studies give contradictory information on the types of searches that users prefer • It appears that the system default search is the most heavily used search type, whether it is keyword, subject, or title • Markey 2007

  4. Our Study of Custom Transaction Log Data • We conducted an evidence-based study of user behavior in the Easy Search University of Illinois Gateway • We looked at total of 1.4 million searches and 1.5 million clickthroughs performed by users in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters • These transaction log studies were supported by National Science Foundation and Institute of Museum and Library Studies

  5. University of Illinois Library Gateway • Revised Gateway portal introduced in September 2007, powered by Easy Search federated search system: • Recommender and discovery system • Employs Search Assistance mechanisms • Helps with search strategy modification and navigation • Takes users into native interfaces at point of completed search • Writes out custom transaction logs

  6. Easy Search Examples

  7. Easy Search Examples

  8. Transaction Log Format

  9. Transaction Logs • 3.5 million user actions, including 1.7 million searches in 2011 • Transaction logs are used in the development of context-specific and adaptive search assistance for users • Our transaction log analysis is complemented with user interviews and surveys • Relational database of two tables with analysis using SQL queries

  10. Search Assistance Features • Context-specific suggestions and prompts for: • Spelling changes • Redo as author search • Direct links to frequent or special search terms or Libguides • Links to matching e-journal title(s) • Links to citation linker (JAL) for full-text retrieval • Limit results to exact phrase, title word(s), or title phrase • Dark background searches displayed if needed

  11. Additional Search Assistance Features List of related terms Performing additional phrase and title searches (multiword search arguments – ISI study Displays e-journal and database list results Pass-through command language search Ask-a-Librarian live link Additional target searches are performed based on user query (Open WorldCat, LC Classification) Links to e-book titles displayed on OPAC results line

  12. Search Starting Points 65.9% of searches are from the single entry search boxes on the default Easy Search tab or on a departmental library site.

  13. Search Starting Points 56.35% of the gateway use is from off-campus 39.26% of all searches are follow-on searches performed from the pull-down search menu on the results page   A large percentage of searches – almost 66% -- are default keyword searches But there is also some willingness to go to facet-like tabs for subset searches

  14. Known Item Searches The increase in specific journal article searches is partially due to users entering ‘cut and paste’ citations into Easy Search

  15. Examples Supporting Annotation as a Scholarly Tool—Experiences From the Online Chopin Variorum Edition The Sound of Silence in Online Feedback: Estimating Trading Risks in the Presence of Reporting Bias Gait recognition using multi-bipolarized contour vector Matouschek, Kellis, Serrano, Fersht Nature kinsella & phillips 2005 Poor Historiraphy: the Poorest in American Higher Education Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime Miller, K. (2009) Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. 5th edition university, need for money J vet emerg crit care

  16. Searching Characteristics 1.4 million searches in the two semesters 66% of searches are default keyword searches and 51% are known item searches – this has to be addressed 637,375 search sessions for an average of 2.19 searches per session 48% of sessions contain more than one query

  17. Terms Per Query 4.33 average words per query. Longest query was 276 words. Total of 4,077,152 words used in the 942,027 sample searches

  18. More Search Characteristics

  19. Search Assistance In 38.6% of all searches and 54.8% of all search sessions, the system made an explicit search assistance suggestion to the user

  20. Search Assistance Spell change suggestions, direct links to frequent/special searches, journal title match links, and article phrase and title links are heavily used

  21. Title Searching Journal title matches were clicked on 21.4% of the time they were presented, or in 6.95% of all search sessions Additional 115,281 sessions where users chose the “Search Journal Titles” tab Added article and book title links were clicked on in 7.35% of all searches and 11.54% of all sessions Title match search and display is common

  22. Title Searching Issues Journal name, journal article, and book title searches are frequently performed WDS problem: these title matches do not typically appear as facet items WDS problem: in default keyword search mode, retrieval of title matches is at the mercy of the relevancy ranking and exact matches may be buried within long lists

  23. Title Searching Issues (2) WDS problem: when specific item is not indexed, WDS will still return long lists of result matches from keyword or full-text matches WDS problem: webscale systems do NOT offer contextual or adaptive search assistance prompts  

  24. Search Assistance Usage We found that users employed our search assistance mechanisms in 32.45% of all search sessions In 57.98% of the search sessions involving more than one query, the user clicked on or utilized one of our offered search suggestions, reformulation options, or relevant resource recommendations 

  25. Clickthroughs to Targets

  26. Clickthroughs by Category Clickthroughs into e-book content targets were 7.87% of all target clicks in 11.36% of all sessions

  27. What Works Best? • Users vote with their mice: • Spell check – YES • Direct Link – infrequent but high clickthrough • Added title and phrase results – YES • Journal title matches - YES • Related terms – NO • Pull-down 10 hits – NO • E-Books from OPAC custom search – YES • Ask a Librarian – Not often but important

  28. What Have We Learned? The search assistance (SA) features transparently provide users with advanced search functionality SA suggestions are made in 38.6% of all searches and 54.8% of all search sessions SA is used in 32.45% of all sessions and 57.98% of sessions with more than one query

  29. Future Considerations • Transaction log analysis can inform design decisions, but ... • How useful is a blended display approach in WDS? • We are working with Ex Libris and other vendors on incorporating search assistance into WDS

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