This study of the online catalog at a large academic library focuses on the nature of problems for which users seek librarians' assistance. Characteristics of users, types of searches, kinds of problems, the effect of prior experience with the system, and user suggestions for improving the system are examined. (10 references) (Author/MES)

Reports the results of part one of a multi-faceted research project investigating children's information-seeking behavior in using World Wide Web search engines, with reference to Yahooligans. Examines search processes, patterns of exploration of returned results, success in finding/retrieving relevant information, persistence in finding…

Compares the search features and retrieval performance of three search engines for children: "Yahooligans!,""Ask Jeeves for Kids," and "Super Snooper" on identical searches. Retrieval performance criteria of the three engines included: retrieval output, relevance, overlap in results, and redundancy. Results shed light…

Reports the results of the second part of a research project that investigated the cognitive and physical behaviors of middle school students (17 seventh grade students) in using "Yahooligans!" to locate relevant information for an assigned research task. Sixty-nine percent partially succeeded, while 31% failed. Implications for formal…

Using a participatory approach, 11 middle school children created paper prototypes for Web search engines. The prototypes were analyzed in relation to content-related spaces, specific spaces, general spaces, instruction spaces, and other spaces. Children's comments about the purposes of the interfaces were analyzed in terms of functionality and…

Investigates the success and information-seeking behavior of seventh-grade children and graduate students in using the Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory to find the correct answer for a fact-based search task. Analyzes and compares the overall patterns of children's and graduate students' Web traversal behaviors, including searching,…