Explores issues surrounding efforts to introduce online catalogs to users and presents relevant research results from Northwestern University's "Educating the Online Catalog User" project. Highlights include attitudes and preconceptions about online catalogs and instruction, research on online catalog use, suggestions for online catalog teaching,…

This packet of materials is for use by school librarians participating in a study of eighth-grade students' attitudes and the relationship of these attitudes to use of the school library. Included is a schedule of activities and an outline of procedures to be followed in the following activities: selection of students to attend six consecutive…

Sixteen articles, books, and reports published between 1978 and 1983 and cited in "Resources in Education" and "Current Index to Journals in Education" are listed in this bibliography on online public access catalogs (OPACs). Emphasis is on the movement toward computer-based alternatives to library card catalogs and user…

College faculty who learned to do online bibliographic searching were surveyed immediately following and one year after training workshops. Information was gathered about user characteristics, their motivation for learning to search, and type of training needed, and conclusions were drawn about need for academic libraries to provide end user…

A follow-up study was conducted in 1987 to assess the use and effectiveness of "Minimum Library Use Skills: Standards, Test, and Bibliography" (MLUS), which had been distributed to all members of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians in 1985. Some copies of this publication had been sold, and it is also available in ERIC…

This report describes a survey of 942 California State University, Northridge, (CSUN) library patrons conducted from March 15 through April 15, 1987. The survey was administered by student interviewers who approached patrons exiting the two CSUN libraries and asked them questions from the survey questionnaire. Survey findings are briefly…

The results of three surveys conducted in 1983--one of Texas Tech University students, one of the library staff, and one of faculty members--indicated that all three populations surveyed agreed that the library should provide bibliographic instruction for students. Preliminary profiles of user needs were developed on the basis of responses to the…

Describes the research objectives, rationale, methodology, and findings of a model program developed at the Northwestern University Library, which examined whether online catalogs require instruction and, if so, how that instruction would be best delivered. (CLB)

This study conducted at Texas A&M University compares two types of training approaches using ERIC SilverPlatter (ERIC SP). Education students received either: (1) a one hour training session on basic search commands and strategies, or (2) a four page instructional handout that described basic search commands, Boolean logic, and special…

This study investigated four general areas of concern at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Library: (1) the characteristics of the library's present and future user population and the identification of its needs; (2) the role and program configuration of user education in the future; (3) methods for increasing user awareness of…

Presents a methodology for describing, analyzing, and evaluating the public service functions of serial file systems, and describes a user study conducted in a university departmental library to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of its system in enabling students new to the library to locate known-items in the serials collection. (CDD)

This report describes a three-stage catalog use study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Stout from 1982 through 1986 to determine the types of searches conducted and search success rates for both the card and online catalogs during the library's transition to the DataPhase Automated Library Information System (ALIS). Phase I, conducted…

Describes the methodology and findings of a study that examined the reasons that people use academic libraries and the relationship between library use, library instruction, and user success. The conclusions identify library services and physical facilities that may increase user satisfaction. (Author/CLB)