User failure to find known library items

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Publication Title

New Library World

Volume

112

Issue

3-4

First page number:

150

Last page number:

170

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand why users at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) are unable to locate locally held items from the university libraries' electronic and physical collections using the library web site and catalog.

Design/methodology/approach – A combination of usability testing methods and quality control methods were used. Items for the study were selected from cancelled interlibrary loan requests. A cognitive walkthrough was performed for citations representative of the top categories of cancellation because the item is owned or available electronically. Quality control methods were used to determine likely user failure points to completing this path. Data from the cognitive walkthrough were compared with actual user behavior, as observed through usability testing.

Findings – Participants in the study failed to locate known items for multiple reasons, but from the usability testing and analysis three major areas emerged: finding the correct starting-point for the search, information not indexed for a selected search, and clicking on the call number link. The complexity of library resources was the main contributor to these failures. Participants expected library searching to behave like their other search experiences.

Research limitations/implications – The failure points identified in the study are in some cases specific to features of the UNLV Libraries' integrated library system.

Originality/value – This paper could be useful to libraries examining the ease with which users can locate items using the library web site and catalog. The research team used a quality control method to analyze usability testing, which provides valuable quantitative data concerning the relationship between user and system failure.

Keywords

Academic libraries; Interlending; Interlibrary loans; Online library catalogs – Use studies; United States of America; University of Nevada; Las Vegas

Disciplines

Communication | Library and Information Science

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

Publisher Citation

Kress, N., Del Bosque, D., & Ipri, T. (2011). User failure to find known items. New Library World, 112, 150-170. doi:10.1108/03074801111117050

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