The collection, organization, and long-term preservation of resources are the raison d'être of archives and archivists. The archival community, however, has largely neglected science data, assuming they were outside the bounds of their professional concerns. Scientists, on the other hand, increasingly recognize that they lack the skills and expertise needed to meet the demands being placed on them with regard to data curation and are seeking the help of ''data archivists'' and ''data curators.'' This represents a significant opportunity for archivists and archival scholars but one that can only be realized if they better understand the scientific context.
T h e A m e r i c a n A r c h i v i s t , V o l . 7 3 ( F a l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 0 ) : 0 0 0 -0 0 0
535T h e A m e r i c a n A r c h i v i s t , V o l . 7 3 ( F a l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 0 ) : 5 3 5 -5 6 8 Seek and You May Find: Successful Search in Online Finding Aid Systems
Morgan G. Daniels and Elizabeth Yakel
A b s t r a c tThis article reports on a series of retrieval experiments using online finding aid systems in two archival institutions to identify heuristics for successful search in archival systems. The project analyzes the success rates of search strategies of forty-three participants and finds that highly successful searchers possess prior archival experience and use both Boolean searches and the browser's page find functionality. Successful searchers also utilize a broader range of search strategies and query reformulation techniques. Many searchers had difficulty choosing appropriate search terms and understanding archival terminology. The results of this study have implications for archival instruction, federated search, and the design of interfaces for online finding aids. A s archives put more finding aids and digital representations online, the number of people potentially accessing archives and manuscripts increases dramatically. Online users of an archives can enter through its Web page or through a search engine. Online users bring a wide range of expectations and some are perhaps confused by finding themselves in the middle of a finding aid. Designing systems to facilitate resource discovery by this ever-broadening archival audience is difficult. T h e a M e r i c a n a r c h i v i S T T h e a M e r i c a n a r c h i v i S T
536Library retrieval studies propose a series of heuristics for search strategies and query reformulation. Search strategy refers to an overall approach to looking for information, including choice of databases, working from broader to narrower searches, and citation tracing. Query reformulation refers to the changes made to a search-such as use of synonyms, Boolean logic, or system-designated delimiters-to retrieve a set of results different from those obtained by an initial query. Whether these heuristics apply to archives, or how they apply, has not been tested.Archival repositories describe their materials differently than do libraries, but they often use similar search interfaces. Users unfamiliar with primary sources but who have used online library catalogs may not realize the differences between library catalogs and cataloging practices and those of online finding aid systems. Similarly, when using archival finding aid systems, users may expect to encounter the kind of search structure, capabilities, and results they encounter with Web search engines. By understanding the search techniques that users bring to online archival collections, we can offer recommendations for increasing the ease of use of search systems through improved interface design and for the most advantageous search strategies for researchers to pursue when using these systems. This study e...
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