How Do Librarians Prefer to Access Collections?

How Do Librarians Prefer to Access Collections?Julie Petr and Lea Currie

University of Kansas Libraries

November 7, 2014

How Do Librarians Prefer to Access Collections?

Background

In 2002, as part of the Digital Library Initiative, the KU Libraries implemented ENCompass (Endeavor Information Systems)

Joined as a development partner

Was to be the primary search mechanism

Problems were encountered


Background

KU Libraries developed a new Information Gateway with a new discovery tool

A persona exercise was used to guide the advisory team

Serials Solutions’ 360 Search was the next tool implemented

Problems were encountered


Next generation discovery tool

In 2011, a task force was formed to research and review new discovery tools

Commercial and open source

Primo (ExLibris) was chosen

A year in development

Problems encountered while in development

Loading records from Voyager

Proquest and EBSCO would not allow their content in Primo, although recently Proquest has started adding content to Primo Central

Problems with the Serial Solutions link resolver


The promise of Primo

Google-like search

Facets to help users narrow searches

Suggest new searches or alternative search terms

Check availability and location

Recall items or retrieve from shelf

Save search results


Problems encountered with Primo

Librarians confused about what it is searching

Upgrades – two steps forward and one step back

LibGuides stopped working in Primo


Primo improvements

Content regularly added

Browse search

Ability of search by ISBN, ISSN, OCLC code, and publisher

Shelf browse


The Survey Instrument

Provide feedback from librarian colleagues

Compare Primo with Google Scholar

Compare with favorite subject database

Known item search

Topic Search

Search a typical topic in subject area

Rank results and compare results

3 positives and 3 suggestions for improvement


We asked 12 librarians to complete the survey

8 surveys were completed

Librarians reported that it took 2-3 hours to complete

What we would do differently

Better and more explicit instructions

Use these exact search terms to do the known item search

Think about this exercise like a librarian and do not try to get

into the head of a student

Design the survey so that it does not take so much time to complete


Known item search

Using Primo and Google Scholar, please conduct the following known

item search

Tennessee Williams – A Streetcar Named Desire


4 librarians preferred Primo results

1 librarian preferred Google Scholar results

3 librarians expressed no preference

3 librarians reported that they would not have used Primo or Google Scholar for this search – they would have selected the online catalog or Google Books


Librarians were surprised at the range of results in both Primo and Google

Scholar

One librarian noted that a number of results were related to musical versions, leading to the concern that this might mislead a student into thinking that the play is a musical

Several librarians reported that none of the first 10 results linked to the play, but rather returned literary criticism and scholarly articles about the play

- “In comparing the two searches, I would feel somewhat frustrated that I did not locate the play, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ easily in either search interface. However, in the Primo search I did eventually get a call number and location after narrowing by format, then by author. In the Google Scholar search, I never did find a digitized version”


Several of the librarians reported using the facets to narrow down the results

- “My first reaction to these results is that they are probably less useful to most undergraduates who might be doing a search on both Primo and Google Scholar. The Primo results look to be (a) almost immediately useful and (b) less scholarly. I would add that Primo allows more options along the left side for refining the search.


Prescribed search

Using Primo and Google Scholar, please conduct a search for the following topic:

Treatment for attention deficit disorder


Librarians were asked to rank on a scale of 1-5 the first 10 results of both searches, with a 1 being the most relevant and a 5 being not relevant at all.

Google Scholar scored 2.13

Primo scored 2.69


7 of the librarians preferred the results in Google Scholar

- “With respect to ADD, both were relevant and useful in their own ways. The top 10 Primo results were more recent, but the top Google Scholar results perhaps got at the topic better.”


2 of the librarians preferred the results found in Primo, with 1 librarian noting that the facets in Primo made the results similar to those found in Google Scholar.

- “I believe that Google Scholar gave a better concentration of relevant items. When I eliminated reviews, newspapers articles, AV, etc., the results were more on a par with Google Scholar.”


Subject specific database search

Using your favorite subject specific database, please conduct a search using a typical research question in your subject area. What is your search strategy? What resource and search terms did you use?


Librarians were asked to rank the first 10 results of the subject specific database search, with a 1 being the most relevant and 5 being not relevant at all.

1 librarian rated the database results with a 3

2 librarians rated the database results with a 2

5 librarians rated the results with a 1


6 of the librarians preferred the subject specific database results over any they had found in Primo or Google Scholar.

- “I think it is clear that using the proper subject database is much more effective IF you have an idea of what you need to retrieve AND realize that kind of question needs a sophisticated, built-over-time tool.”


1 librarian expressed surprise at the quality of the results in Primo

- “I was surprised that Primo compared more favorably than Google Scholar for the prescribed searches in 1 & 2. I still got the best search results by going to my subject database to search for materials on a typical topic for [the discipline].”


Positives and Suggested Improvements

Librarians were asked to share positive comments about Primo

Librarians were asked to share suggested improvements for Primo


Positive comments about Primo

The facets and filtering options

The browse-the-shelf feature

Find information resources one might not have considered

Easy to use

Some relevant results were found quickly

“If I didn’t know which database to search, it would be a good place to start”


Suggestions for improvement

Better de-duping

Not certain what material is being searched

Needs to reduce the number of results returned

Relevancy rankings need improvement

Multiple “versions” are confusing


Recommendations and conclusions

One of the most common complaints among the librarians was too many duplicated results

Collection librarians may be able to alleviate this problem to some degree by turning off some of the duplicative content available in Primo Central

Will the addition of Proquest to Primo Central increase duplication?

Primo now “FRBRizes” results and groups them together so that it is easier to tell that you are looking at the same title

Librarians are not satisfied with the relevancy ranking of Primo results, but the IT staff continues to upgrade Primo which has improved results


Recommendations and conclusions

The survey will be most beneficial to the development group by serving as a benchmark

Developers can use the search terms from the survey in Primo after each upgrade and compare their results to those in the surveys to find out if the upgrade improved the results

The results from the survey drove home the need to educate the librarians and engage them in using Primo on a regular basis

Librarians think Primo is a federated search tool

Primo Central is an index that provides content from individual publishers, scholarly societies, institutional repositories, and local collections as well as databases

Questions?

Julie Petr – [email protected]

Lea Currie – [email protected]

University of Kansas Libraries

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

How Do Librarians Prefer to Access Collections?

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