Subject Search Disconnect:

Or, How Do Our Users Want to Search for Subject Information?

Margaret Mellinger and Jane Nichols Oregon State University Libraries

OLA, 2006

“virtual college libraries”

needs assessment

• literature review and web site inventory

• survey

• focus group

• usability

literature review

• customization • database driven web pages • mylibrary type applications• personalization • portals • subject research guides• subject searching/organization on web

pages

web site inventory

• Ohio State University Libraries Gateway to Information• VIVO Virtual Life Sciences Library • University of Washington’s Resources by Subject Pages • University of Washington Health Sciences • NCSU

– Business Information Network – MyLibrary

• University of Rochester River Campus Libraries• AquaBrowser • University of Michigan Business Library • University of Minnesota Undergraduate Virtual Library

student survey

survey comments

Make it simpler

…make it more friendly

Sometimes I just get lost…

More publicity!

Common searches

Simple search box

focus groups

focus group comments

…2 hours in library vs. 5 minutes online

Single search box

Suggested search terms

Too many choices… …no explanation of

choices

Steps that narrow the search

icons

usability sessions

conclusions

new directions

questions

virtual college libraries taskforce

Ruth Vondracek, lead

Loretta Rielly

Maureen Kelly

Hannah Gascho Rempel

Jane Nichols

Margaret Mellinger

web site addresses• AquaBrowser

http://www.medialab.nl/• Cornell University VIVO Virtual Life Sciences Library

http://vivo.library.cornell.edu/• Ohio State University Libraries Gateway to Information

http://library.osu.edu/sites/thegateway/• NCSU Business Information Network

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/business/• NCSU MyLibrary

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/mylibrary/about.html• University of Michigan Business Library Database Finder

http://eres.bus.umich.edu/dbfinder/DataBaseFinder.htm• University of Minnesota Undergraduate Virtual Library

http://www.lib.umn.edu/undergrad/• University of Rochester River Campus Libraries

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/• University of Washington Health Sciences

http://healthlinks.washington.edu/• University of Washington’s Resources by Subject pages

http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/

selected articles • Dahl, M. 2004. Content Management Strategy for a College Library Web Site. Info. Tech. Libr. 23(1):23-29.• Ghaphery, J. 2002. My Library at Virginia Commonwealth University: Third year evaluation. D-Lib Magazine.

8(7).• Ghaphery, J. and D. Ream. 2000. VCU’s My Library: librarians love it—users? Well, maybe. Info. Tech. and

Libraries. 19(4):186-190.• Gibbons, S. 2003. Building Upon the MyLibrary Concept to Better Meet the Information Needs of College

Students. D-Lib Magazine. 9(3).• Guenther, K. 1999. Customized data delivery through web portals: a case study. Online. 23(6):51.• Hein, K.K. and M.W. Davis. 2002. The Research Wizard: An Innovative Web Application for Patron Service.

Internet Reference Services Quarterly. 7(1):1-18.• Jordan, W. 2000. My Gateway at the University of Washington libraries. Info. Tech. and Libraries. 19(4):180-

185.• Ketchell, D.S. 2000. Too many channels: making sense out of portals and personalization. Info. Tech. and

Libraries. 19(4):175-179.• Levinson, M. 2002. Portal U.; How to connect students, faculty, staff, alumni and businesses so that they can

share the school’s services, research and applications? Go for the gateway approach. CIO. 16(3):1.• Morgan, E.L. 20 Jan 2005. MyLibrary@NCState: The Implementation of a User-centered, Customizable

Interface to a Library’s Collection of Information Resources. http://my.lib.ncsu.edu/about/sigir-99/.• Nielsen, J. 27 Feb 2005. Personalization is over-rated. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/981004.html• Roberts. G. 2000. Designing a database-driven web site, or the evolution of the infoiguana. Computers in

Libraries. 10:26-32.• Westman, S. 2001. Database-backed library web pages. The Electronic Library. 19(6):424-431. • Yerkey, N. 2001. Active server pages for dynamic database web access. Library Hi Tech. 19(2):133-142.