Session Number

12

Description

This study was the pilot study for an Internordic project to monitor the use of online catalogues in the Nordic technological university libraries to be started in the Fall 1991. Most of the Nordic online OPACs have been in operation for more than a decade but not much information is available on how the users actually carry out their searches in these systems. On the whole, subject searching in OPACs is generally little examined. In this pilot study the main emphasis was on the use of classification in subject searching: how the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is used and the extent of its use. The aim of the Internordic project is not only to gather information about user interaction with the OPACs and to focus on subject searching as well as to consider the improvements to information retrieval in the catalogues. The method chosen to carry out this project was the transaction log method, a rather inexpensive way to gather information.

There have been several surveys concerning the TENTTU Books database in the past ten years. None of them monitored the actual searches as they were based on interviews and questionnaires. The problem with questionnaires is that the answers can be to a degree misleading [1}, and therefore the results of such surveys must be carefully scrutinized.

The Helsinki University of Technology Library is now installing an intergrated online system in addition to the TENTTU system. For the Internordic study, searches made in the new Virginia Tech Library System (VTLS) will be monitored as well to allow comparisons between the two systems.

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Analysis of Subject Searching in the Tenttu Books Database

This study was the pilot study for an Internordic project to monitor the use of online catalogues in the Nordic technological university libraries to be started in the Fall 1991. Most of the Nordic online OPACs have been in operation for more than a decade but not much information is available on how the users actually carry out their searches in these systems. On the whole, subject searching in OPACs is generally little examined. In this pilot study the main emphasis was on the use of classification in subject searching: how the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is used and the extent of its use. The aim of the Internordic project is not only to gather information about user interaction with the OPACs and to focus on subject searching as well as to consider the improvements to information retrieval in the catalogues. The method chosen to carry out this project was the transaction log method, a rather inexpensive way to gather information.

There have been several surveys concerning the TENTTU Books database in the past ten years. None of them monitored the actual searches as they were based on interviews and questionnaires. The problem with questionnaires is that the answers can be to a degree misleading [1}, and therefore the results of such surveys must be carefully scrutinized.

The Helsinki University of Technology Library is now installing an intergrated online system in addition to the TENTTU system. For the Internordic study, searches made in the new Virginia Tech Library System (VTLS) will be monitored as well to allow comparisons between the two systems.