Minutes of July 16, 2003 Meeting

Present:

Natalie Borisovets; Vib Bowman (recorder); Jeanne Boyle; Ellen Calhoun; Bob Warwick

Excused:

Stephanie Bartz, Mary Beth Weber

Meeting called to order 2 PM.

IPAC General Information

IPAC at the beginning of this academic year discussed the need for new member and for a chair.

Jeanne reported that Linda Langschied has agreed to join the committee and to serve as the chair of the committee.

Discussion of Browse or Keyword as IRIS Default

Jeanne gave an overview of the background information on the discussion of "browse" or "keyword" as the search default. Committee agreed that Vanderbilt's catalog search page was one to emulate.

Jeanne read through and summarized the e-mails from library faculty and staff. The majority of faculty and staff who responded to the test preferred the "browse" default because it produced more exact results.

Vib discussed the results of the focus group and survey that she had conducted at Camden. (See attached.)

There was an extended discussion as to the merits of either "browse" or "keyword" as a default for the catalog.

Jeanne drafted a summary of the discussion, including a restatement of the two different positions that emerged from the meeting: our regular and heavy users seem to prefer browse, while potential and new users appear to prefer keyword. If seasoned users prefer browse, then perhaps it is our educational responsibility to make browse the first and preferred option. If potential and new users prefer keyword, then perhaps it is our responsibility to retain keyword as the default, thereby making IRIS as appealing as the Web search engines with which they are probably familiar. Jeanne volunteered to present the different positions to the librarians responsible for public services on each campus to get a better gauge of systemwide preference.

Booking Request Form

The Committee approved the suggestion by Gary Golden, Director, Paul Robeson Library, that the media request booking form will open as a new window within the catalog.

Change in IRIS Terminology

The following wording change was approved and will take place Monday, July 21. Jeanne will send out an announcement along with the announcement about the new label ("Secondary Subject") for uncontrolled subject headings, which will begin to appear. Bob will provide Jeanne with an example from the test catalog for those who wish to see the new label.

Browse will change to "begins with"
Keyword will change to "contains"

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 PM.

IRIS Browse Default Test
Vibiana Bowman, IPAC Member
July 15, 2003

Methodology

Question asked: "Which display would you prefer to use?"
Search used: "Eating disorders"
Choice A: Keyword default + "Enter"
Choice B: Browse default + "Enter"

Focus Groups Results

July 1, 2003 (day class)
33 EOF students (in-coming freshman)
28 preferred "A"
2 preferred "B"
3 abstained

July 1, 2003 (evening class)
20 EOF students (in-coming freshman)
15 preferred "A"
4 preferred "B"
11 abstained

Survey Results (one-to-one surveyed between July 1 and July 11 2003)

Undergraduates
Total surveyed: 6
5 preferred "B"; 1 preferred "A"

Graduate students
Total surveyed: 6
4 preferred "B"; 2 preferred "A"

Notes

• Several undergraduate students expressed confusion at what to do at the listings screens on what to do next.

• Most undergraduate students remarked that they did not understand the need for a intermediary screen (index listing.)

• Several undergraduate students were unsure as to what they were looking at on the brief display screen.

• Most of the graduate students thought that the "browse" default gave more exact results.

Comments

• There are several common searches that yield either "0" results or confusing results when the default is set to browse. Try these examples:
  • Blogs (results: 1 hit with keyword; 0 with browse)
  • Spam (results: 1 hit with keyword; 0 with browse)
  • American Indians (results: 700+ with keyword; 1 hit - "American Indians by Tribes Mandan" and 1 hit "American Indian Studies Research Institute" with browse)

• Try this as an exercise: search IRIS using either Browse or Keyword as a default; type in the term "Civil War;" and hit enter. Repeat as a Google search. The results in Google are very useful for an undergraduate - many excellent educational sites are at the top of the results list. As a follow-up, use Google and type in the search "download paper on civil war." Interesting results especially from an undergraduate POV!

• From this small survey, it would seem that novice users find the browse default confusing for two reasons: they do not know how to interpret the subject index screen and because many common searches yield "0" hits. Experience (graduate students) users prefer the browse default because it yields more exact result. They know to refine their search or approach a librarian if they are unsuccessful.

Conclusions and Suggestions

• Keep keyword as the default. From the small sample survey that I did, undergraduate (our largest audience) prefer it and it yields at least some results with inexact searches where the browse default will yield "0."

• Use this simple search with keyword as the default on the RUL home page.

• Use a revised Advanced Search (with simpler wording - more guided) as the default search screen when you click on IRIS from the home page.