Educating Online Catalog Users: The Protocol Assessment of Needs

Abstract

Traditional methods of studying and evaluating the use of online public access catalogs (OPACs) are discussed and compared to the protocol method. Verbal protocols are spoken records of people describing their work; they uncover detailed data about what people are thinking as they attempt to solve problems. The results of the Carnegie‐Mellon University protocol study of OP AC users are discussed.

Retrieval by reformulation in two library catalogs: Toward a cognitive model of searching behavior

“…While investigations of the effectiveness of the catalog in representing the library's collection to its users constitute a substantial body of research, most catalog use studies have been evaluative, with improved catalog performance as their objective (Krikelas, 1972;Lancaster, 1977;Hafter, 1979;Cochrane & Markey, 1983). Although some studies have investigated the processes that occur as users search for information in library catalogs, there has been little concerted effort toward probing the psychological aspects of searching (Tagliacozzo & Kochen, 1970;Krikelas, 1980Krikelas, -1981Markey, 1983Markey, , 1986Sullivan & Seiden, 1985). Furthermore, most studies aimed at analyzing the search process have focused on librarians rather than library users, and on online retrieval systems rather than on catalogs [Oldroyd & Citroen, 1977;Bates, 1979aBates, , 1979bBates, , 1981Fenichel, 1980Fenichel, -1981Ingwerssen, 1982;Dolan, 1983;Vigil, 1983;Fidel, 1984;Bellardo, 1981Bellardo, , 1985Fairhall, 1985.1 One objective of this study was to compare searching behaviors in two differently formatted university library catalogs, a card catalog and an electronic catalog (online public access catalog).…”

Undergraduate use of CD-ROM databases: Observations of human-computer interaction and relevance judgments

“…The often second nature or automatic ability to understand the different interfaces or to get out of unpromising situations may be especially useful in coping with the range of computer-based information systems to which these students have been and will be exposed. Sullivan and Seiden (1985) found that searchers in an online catalog attempted to recover from problems at an intermediate level, rather than starting over at the beginning. This study observed such behavior, for example the "playing with words" approach to searching, but also a willingness to jump to a different database and start with a "clean slate" if a search was not going as desired.…”

“…Several studies have analyzed transaction logs of OPAC interactions, observing that searchers alter strategies when a search is perceived as failing, and are often quite persistent in reading through large numbers of retrieved citations (Sullivan and Seiden, 1985, Wallace, 1993, Wiberley, Daugherty and Danowski, 1990. Other studies of online catalog searching have used detailed observation of individual searchers.…”

How usability testing can aid the development of online documentation

“…The test-planning matrix is designed to help the usability tester with those decisions. Other schemes for classifying methods rely on categories such as focus of test (Shriver, 1989), purpose of test (Sullivan, 1987), and data type (Sullivan, 1985). These afternative ways of seeing the methods are certainly useful, although one of the first (and major) concerns of a test designer in industry is the state of the product to be tested.…”