HKU Observations (1)

8/13/2019 HKU Observations (1)

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What the physical library can teach us about

the digital library

Sally Jo Cunningham1, Nicholas Vanderschantz1, Claire Timpany1, Annika Hinze1,

George Buchanan2, Nina Reeves3

1University of Waikato, New Zealand

2City University London, UK

3Middlesex University, UK

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Our interests over the past decade

Physical interactions in physical document

collections (music, books)

Prefer naturalistic settings over artificial

environments

Initial approach: descriptive, as few pre-

conceived notions as possible

Goals: suggest further avenues for digital

collection support


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Methods

Anonymous observations

CD shops

Libraries

Bookstores

Think-aloudprotocols (accompanied

shopping / library visits)

Interviews

Focus groups


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Shopping for music

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What ordinary information behaviorsdo people exhibit when interacting

with large collections of music?


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Previous music behavior investigations

Anecdotal: people often can hum a few barsof a song

Lab experiments:

Which part of a song do people remember?

What metadata do people remember?

How much of a song do people remember?

How accurately can we hum songs?.

Music reference desk question logs


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Method

Anonymous participant observations

NZ, UK CD shops (20+ hours)

NZ Libraries (4 hours)

Accompanied shopping (5)

NZ, UK Interviews (6)

UK focus groups (2 x 5 participants)


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Browsing is a significant activity

Music shopping is shopping around, not shoppingfor

Searching and browsing are often interleaved

Serendipity: in WWW music resources,You also cant choose random CDs, which I suppose is theadvantage of shops as you can just search at random.


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Browsing by genre

Genre is important, but problematic

I have trouble finding things sometimes, sometimes agroup or person can fit into more than one categoryPop music can be alternative or easy listening sometimes,or hard rock, or rap, it can be any of those things.

Genre often described by intended use for music(gym music, study music), by mood

(

depressing

,

happy

),

People find it easier to provide examples of a genrethan to define it: more like this


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Text is important!

Known-item searches by metadata With the usual problems:

I have a lot of trouble looking up a song and I dont know whosang it.

Lyrics searching would help:

They really need to come up with a better way for people to lookup music if they know a few words of the song.

Text on CD spines for quick scanning:Unfortunately theyre not in alphabetical order, so I have to gothrough the whole damn thing.

Tracklists to confirm selection:The titlesare they familiar to me, can I hear the song in my

head?


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Text

What sort of additional metadata beyond performer,

title, date?

The lyricsdo they have the words to the song. Anythingbiographical about the artist, what was inspirational to

him, when it was written, where it was recorded.

Basically the more information the better.


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Music shopping is collaborative

Families, friends, romantic couples

Shopping for others, as gifts

Bonding: showing that we have similar tastes,

know each other

s needs


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Music shopping is surprisingly visual

Cover art to locate, identify genreIll quite often spot something across the store and go ooh ooh

ooh.

To locate, identify particular CDs

Often I know what the album looks like from the TV ads. As a clue to contents:

What would this sound like?

Tool for collaborative shoppingHave you seen this?

And the visual is attractive and adds to theenjoyment of the experience!


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Digital directions

Expanded metadata, text search for MIR

systems (integrated with Query By Humming)

Genres, mood are a continuing interest

Pay more attention to browsing!

MIR systems should be a pleasure to see,

browse, play in

This collaborative, social aspect is interesting


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Children in the physical library

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What do children do when theyinteract with large physical document

collections?


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Previous research primarily:

Small number of participants

Focused on fine-grained selection

activities Choice between small number of books

Choice of book for school assignment

Mediated book selection

Log analysis of Childrens Digital Library


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Method

Anonymous participant observation of children in

bookstores and public libraries

11 sessions, 14 hours total

Conducted during school holidays

Manual notes only

Shadowing exercises

7 childrenDebriefings of parents


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Adults and children have

different goals

Adult Child

Acquire interesting books to

read at home

Have fun

Locate books within the

(known) time limit

Have fun until parents drag

them away

Stay within upper limit on(known) number of selections

What, theres a limit???


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Fun in a library /bookstore

can distract from reading

For the digital library: resist gratuitousanimations, games, activities


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But kids do want to interact with the

ideas in the books

Rose as a ballerina, like the one in her book


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Its not all about the books: having fun with

family and friends

Showing off interesting finds

Reading to each other

Reading side by side

Getting book advice

Giving book advice (evenbetter!)

Rejecting book advice (best!)

Why is the DL model of a solitary, isolated user?

Father: How about this

one, its about Justin

Bieber.

Daughter (approx. 11):

I said I wanted a good

book.


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Parents are kids DL users too

Parents act as gatekeepers, rejectingBooks that are too adult

Books that are too young

Books that are just gross

Parents want reassurance over the quality and

appropriateness of collection

One parent characterized an online library as scary. Whoknows what books are there, if they're appropriate, if there's

been a virus and now it has porn? There's no librarian.

There's no trust.


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But kids want (some) independenceSetting: the newspapers and magazines section of a bookstore.

Mom is browsing at magazine rack. Her son, about five years old,

comes over with five books that hes picked from the childrens

section. Mom reminds him that he can only have one. He spreads

the books out on a nearby table. He thinks and thinks, finally culls

the choices down to two, but still cant make up his mind.Boy: Mom, which one should I buy? Which one do youlike? Which

one should I get?

Mom: You buy the one you want, that you like.

Boy: No, you tell me.Mom: Well, I think you should buy this one [points at one of the

two books].

Boy: I hate that book.


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Browsing is based on visual, spatial

characteristics

Cover, spine as clues to content

Cover most important to youngest kids

Browsing by interesting sections of books

Browsing is blazingly fast!

But changes in layout, book ordering causeconfusion Aisha, age 6, tries to show

the me her favorite books

in a local bookstore:I want

to show you something

oh, they change things

every week! Everythings

such a bumble now, I cant

find anything.


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What next?

Focus on the choice: what prompts a child to

pick a particular book?

What do children understand about the contents

of a book, based on its physical aspects?

How do children manage their books at home?

How do children act in the digital library and

bookstore?


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Social information behaviour

in bookshops

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We see a lot of groups of people!

What are they doing collaboratively,

socially?


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Related work Collaborative Information behaviour

Use of books [Bohley, 2011, Bryant et al]

Use of ebooks [Pearson et al, 2012]

Information use in a group [Reddy et al 2008,Sonnonwald et al 2000]]

Librarian/Patron [Procter et al, 1998]

Childrens collaboration [Cunningham, 2011]

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Book-basedsocialnetworking

Sharing: librarything.com,goodreads.com, shelfari.com

eReader: kindle,inkling, kobo

post-purchase / post-loan activities

No research

very scant knowledge

about book selectionin group context

Social presence

Shared space and

awareness

Ambient awareness


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Observations

anonymous observations in 5 shops

activities of groups of two or more customers

96 people in 42 groups

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AUpscale

second hand

NZ

BResearch

university

NZ

CLarge chain

NZ

DSpecialist art

& architecture

NZ

ELarge chain

USA

35 3 1 2 1

?


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Observations

Children:six parent/child groups(total nine children)

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female

25%

mixed

67%

male

5%

?3%

Age:

Gender:


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3 Patterns: macro-level

Socialinteraction

Collaborativesearch

Independentsearch


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Socialinteraction

o chatting

o waiting forfriend

o passing time

o dating

while browsingfor andsampling books

G7: two customers told each other about their

countries of origin using travel books as props.

ogetting to know each other

obooks as tools to facilitate the conversation

G4: young couple looking though display book "The

Batman Films" on the sofa

opointing to images

opage-by-page exploring

oreading aloud + explanation

seemed to be a means of him introducing her to an

interest of his (Batman movies).


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Collaborativesearch

sharedinformation

need

helpingsomeone

to search

G6: couple searchedtogether for books.

oboth search

omeet with their books

ocompare side-by-side

oturn pages together

ocompare indexes

oread out loud

ocompare content

G23: use of cover design toidentify a familiar book.

opointing, flipping

oturning pages together

oreviewing book visually

ooften accompanied by

verbal and nonverbal cues


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3 Patterns: macro-levelIndependent

search

independentsearch

individualmotivations

occasionallysharing their finds

G8: 2 women with independent search goals

o1st:"I'm gonna run around this corner and try to find

the book I want, it's a book about cooking for a baby"

oRunning commentary by searcher

o2ndwoman reads text messages, then looks for books

oshow books to each other

oshared experience: social gathering + searching forspecific material

ogroups, pairs, families

overbal and nonverbal communication with

synchronous and asynchronous interactions


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Socialinteraction

o chatting

o waiting forfriend

o passing time

o

Datingwhile browsingfor andsampling books

Collaborativesearch

shared

informationneed

helpingsomeone

to search

Independent

search

individualmotivations

independentsearch

occasionallysharing their finds

24 8

11


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Sharing Behaviours: micro level

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verbal

non-verbal

Typical pattern:

ocome in together & go to shelves

oone person drifts to near-by section

oother browses and then catches up

Interaction in subtle physical cues in

facial expression and body language


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Bookshop as a social space

Both socialising & locating information

Book shop: aspects of stores & libraries (but

free-er)

Bookshop: backdrop for talking aboutpersonal matters (with books as props).

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G34: Mum starts dancing and gets Daughter to dance,and they dance to the middle of the shop.

G7: introduced themselves to each other using books oftheir home countries (this is called 90 mile beach,So here is the central part of Bangkok).


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New Requirements for DL

Cater for both task-oriented and serendipitousinformation searching behaviours.

Observations from libraries see [Twidale et al, 1997]

Support intuitive and light-weight sharing that is

not co-located and potentially asynchronousSome similarity to sharing behaviour in co-reading

(typically co-located and synchronous) [Pearson et al, 2012]

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light-weight support for informal, transitoryand fluent behaviours based on implicitunderstandingCompared to formal work groups w/ heavy-weight

interaction

understandings of each others objectives less formed& less consequential and across short time-spans

motivations and goals may change frequentlymutual understanding of interest and tastes are

grounded in shared social and personal backgrounds

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DL as third place?

a place of refuge other than the home or workplace where peoplecan regularly visit and commune with friends, neighbours, co-workers, and even strangers [Metha 2010]

"mega-bookstores" are deliberate, not accidental, social spaces ,[Trager, 2005]

shop D was a "mega-bookstore" but social interactions occurred in allobserved shops w/o being designed to facilitate this behaviour.

Observed bookshops as third places

G36: Dad called "Come on you lot, we're coming back tomorrow"

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Thank you for your attention.

Suggestions or Questions?

Sally Jo [email protected]

HKU Observations (1)

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