The Faceted Catalog as a Tool for Searching Monographic Series: Usability Study of Lens

Abstract

This study explored the functionality of the University of Chicago's faceted catalog, Lens, in respect to monographic series. A user study was designed to evaluate the efficiency of Lens in searching for monographic series and also to determine whether controlled series access in the catalog record improves the search results. The results of the study indicate that while Lens could be considered an adequate tool for searching series that are known to be published under the same title, some changes would make it a better search engine for a series that changes series statements from one volume to another.Faceted catalogs are increasingly important discovery tools for research. A faceted search or faceted browsing enables users to access information using facets as a tool to locate or analyze the text. Facets, often defined as labels for structured metadata, permit a refinement of search results, without changing the original query. Marti A. Hearst describes facets as way of classifying information in a collection when "multiple meaningful labels are assigned to each item . . . and organized in such a way as to reflect the concepts relevant to a domain." 1 Therefore a faceted search combines faceted navigation with free text search, allowing users to access semi-structured content collections. Recent user studies have shown that researchers value faceted catalogs because they improve the efficiency of the search.

Making a Case for User Experience Research to Drive Technical Services Priorities

“…One exception is Walsh, who observed three graduate students and two faculty members searching for monographic series in a library catalog, which led to UX recommendations related to both cataloging practice and interface design. 6 Walsh's 2012 paper may stand alone as an example of UX research with a technical services perspective, but technical services staff were conducting research into users' search behavior years before UX appeared in the library literature.…”