The information-seeking behavior has proven vital in understanding people's search behavior while seeking information about a particular topic or field. However, in some geographical regions, studies that focus on information-seeking behavior are few, specifically studying Arabic users' information-seeking behavior. A handful of studies…

Growth of their college's off-campus and online course offerings led librarians at SUNY Oswego to run usability tests with off-campus students to compensate for a lack of responses from this population during earlier usability testing. Constraints on testing with off-campus students included lack of funding and librarian time, as well as…

In 2011, researchers at Bucknell University and Illinois Wesleyan University compared the search efficacy of Serial Solutions Summon, EBSCO Discovery Service, Google Scholar, and conventional library databases. Using a mixed-methods approach, qualitative and quantitative data were gathered on students' usage of these tools. Regardless of the…

Introduction: This study explores the extent to which an institutional repository makes papers available and accessible on the open Web by using 170 journal articles housed in DigiNole Commons, the institutional repository at Florida State University. Method: To analyse the repository's impact on availability and accessibility, we conducted…

Web-scale discovery systems are gaining momentum among academic libraries as libraries seek a means to provide their users with a one-stop searching experience. Illinois State University's Milner Library found itself in the unique position of having access to two distinct discovery products, EBSCO Discovery Service and Serials Solutions' Summon.…

The University of Michigan Library wanted to learn more about the kinds of searches its users were conducting through the "one search" search box on the Library Web site. Library staff conducted two investigations. A preliminary investigation in 2011 involved the manual review of the 100 most frequently occurring queries conducted…

The contributions in this volume represent a decade of OCLC's user behavior research findings that articulate the need for the design of future library services to be all about the user. Highlights include: (1) People associate the library with books and do not consider the library in relation to online resources or reference services; (2) People…

Content-enriched metadata in bibliographic records is considered helpful to library users in identifying and selecting library materials for their needs. The paper presents a study, using circulation data from a medium-sized academic library, of the effect of content-enriched records on library materials usage. The study also examines OPAC search…

E-books have yet to assume a significant place in academic library collections. This article focuses on extracting common themes from the literature that might help the reader better understand why e-books have not yet become the cornerstone of the academic library. Patrons do not use e-books because they find the experience of using e-books…

As the use of the Ohio State University Libraries interlibrary services has increased, there have been more requests to borrow items that are already available to patrons locally, often in electronic format. Patterns relating to why patrons could not find locally available materials were identified in the record of canceled interlibrary requests…

This report describes a computer-monitoring study of users of the Ohio State University Libraries' online catalog, an established and heavily used information retrieval system. Designed for end users, online library catalogs require little or no formal training, and often replace an existing manual system. Data were gathered unobtrusively by…

Describes a Web usability study conducted at Western Michigan University to investigate students' success in locating journal articles. Participants' search paths and comments revealed widespread confusion about the article-finding process and revealed weaknesses in the library's Web site which led to improvements in page layout and library…

Describes a study that examined patron response to and success in using bibliographic databases on CD-ROM. Perceived needs for training and satisfaction with the system were measured by asking patrons about ease of use, search success, their need for assistance, and preferences for CD-ROM or print research tools. The questionnaire used is…

In a study of library use and research behavior, 91 undergraduate and 68 graduate business students at California State University San Marcos were surveyed and observed for query formulation and task assignments, prereference process expectations, and postreference process responses. Findings support past research by pointing to user impatience…

To determine if users of the library at Auburn University (Alabama) used the cross-references provided by the series title authority file in online catalog searches, this study performed a transaction log analysis of 2,793 searches and found that cross-references are used. The number of redirects rose as the number of cross-references in the…