Reviews student use of electronic searching tools and the effect of software changes on user satisfaction and success. Discusses the results of two surveys of InfoTrac users before and after software changes at Northern Illinois University, and proposes three strategies systems developers can take to balance the differing needs of sophisticated…

Describes an analysis of transaction logs of the online catalog at the University of Missouri-Kansas City that examined patron use of both controlled and uncontrolled vocabulary subject access during the same search session. Hypotheses tested are discussed, and recommendations are made for library instruction and online catalog design. (six…

This workbook is designed to familiarize students with the layout of Whittemore Library (Framingham State College, Massachusetts) and the types of information sources available for them to use in solving their research problems. It also provides guidance in developing a logical, systematic plan for formulating a search strategy and gathering…

This document was developed primarily in response to a bibliographic lecture in an upper-division Afro-American survey course that covers the American colonial period to the present. In addition to representative examples of reference works, bibliographies, bibliographic sources, and periodical indexes, a section is devoted to the proper use of…

This report presents the results of a study which explored how patron perceptions and demographics related to keyword/Boolean searching on Indiana State University's (ISU) Library User Information System (LUIS), the online public access catalog (OPAC). Two general theses guide the study: (1) whether the use or non-use of keyword searching on LUIS…