“User revealment”—a comparison of initial queries and ensuing question development in online searching and in human reference interactions

Abstract

This paper compares user's opening queries and their search progression in two sets of data: logs of end-user online searches and user-librarian reference interactions. The two sets of opening queries have common characteristics, in particular they are both too general in relation to the user's search intention. Search progression is very different in the two settings, and the humanmediated searches have a far higher success rate than the online searches. A communication model, based on theories of conversations between strangers, is applied to explain how users are induced to reveal their search intention in the dialogue with the intermediary.Establishing and maintaining contact, creating trust and ensuring understanding are essential elements in these dialogues, and play a larger role than the intermediary's questions. Suggestions for introduction of such elements to achieve user revealment in the online searches are discussed.

Changes in Reference Question Complexity Following the Implementation of a Proactive Chat System: Implications for Practice

“…As a further illustration of the professional nature of the reference interview, Nordlie found that more than 60 percent of users change their topic during the interaction, underscoring the importance of broad research expertise in addressing this type of reference question. 17 While nonprofessionals can be trained in the use of specialized information resources, it is difficult for them to develop the academic context and research expertise necessary to answer some reference questions through training alone.…”

User perceptions of online public library catalogues

“…However, most existing user studies have mainly focused on OPACs' search engine's capabilities [2,12] as well as on identifying user retrieval methods [23,21], so that users are able to find the information they need with minimal effort. Whilst such research disregards the fact that environmental conditions affect people's behaviour more than their personal goals [4], an even more important omission, in our opinion, is that they implicitly assume that a good interface design has been executed in the first place.…”

“…As opposed to previous studies [16,20,1,21] in the area, which have mainly focused on information retrieval and usability issues in OPACs, the purpose of the research reported in this paper is to determine end user opinions and suggestions in respect of existing OPAC features and functionalities; and also to explore how these are influenced by the particular IT background of a user. In so doing, we hope to take a first step towards integrating user expectations and preferences in OPAC design.…”

Toward automatic facet analysis and need negotiation

“…While we acknowledge substantial work that has been done on analyzing face-to-face reference encounters, e.g., (Swigger, 1985;Nordlie, 1999;Spink et al, 1996;Spink and Saracevic, 1997;Spink, 1997;White, 1998), we believe that this work is qualitatively different for several reasons. First, the TREC setup narrows the scope of inquiry, which naturally limits the realism of the problem, but allows us to make stronger conclusions.…”