An exploration of search-as-learning in digital archives of an online museum
| Date | 12 September 2023 |
| Pages | 298-319 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2023-0056 |
| Published date | 12 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | I-Chin Wu,Pertti Vakkari,Bo-Xian Huang |
An exploration of search-as-
learning in digital archives of
an online museum
I-Chin Wu
Graduate Institute of Library and Information Studies,
School of Learning Informatics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Pertti Vakkari
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences,
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland, and
Bo-Xian Huang
National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –Recent studies on search-as-learning (SAL) have recognized the significance of identifying users’
learning needs as they evolve for acquiring knowledge during the search process. In this study, the authors clarify
the extentto which search behaviorsreflect the learning outcomeand foster the users’knowledge of Chinese art.
Design/methodology/approa ch –The authors conducted an exploratory-sequential mixed-methods
approach using simulated work task situations to collect empirical data. The authors used two types of
simulatedlearningtasks for topicsrelated to paintingand antiqueknowledge. A lotof 25 users participatedin this
evaluationofdigital archives(DAs) at theNational PalaceMuseum (NPM)in Taiwan. Foreach set of topics,a close-
ended taskrelated to lower-levellearning goals and an open-ended taskrelated to higher-levellearning goals.
Findings –The learning criteria reflect changes in the users’knowledge structure, revealing the SAL process.
Furthermore, users achieved better task performance on the higher-level creative-learning task, which
suggests that they met more learning criteria, exhibited a greater variety of search patterns when exploringthe
topics via interaction with various sources. Finally, there is a close relationship between creative-learning
tasks, prior knowledge, keyword search actions and learning outcomes.
Originality/value –The authors discuss implications with respect to the design of DAs in practice and
contributions to the body of SAL knowledge in DAs of online museums. For future reference, the authors
provide implications for the development of learning measures from the perspective of user search behavior
with associated learning outcomes in the context of DAs.
Keywords Chinese art and crafts, Digital archives search system, Learning criteria, Level of learning tasks,
Online museum, Search as learning
Paper type Article
1. Introduction
Traditional interactive information retrievalmeasures focusmainly on relevanceand efficiency;
however,these measuresare not sufficientfor evaluatinghow useful the searchtools are. Belkin
(2015) and Vakkari (2020) haveshown the importanceof moving from relevanceto usefulnessas
JD
80,2
298
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan under Grant No. 108-
2410-H-003-132-MY2 and the “Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences”of National
Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the
framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
All authors have made a significant contribution to this paper.
Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved and monitored by the research
ethics committee (REC) board of National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan (REC: 201908HS014). To
protect the privacy and confidentiality of participants, all participants’unique identification information
was stripped.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 25 March 2023
Revised 13 July 2023
Accepted 24 July 2023
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 80 No. 2, 2024
pp. 298-319
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-03-2023-0056
the maincriterion for theevaluation of interactive information retrieval (IIR)systems. Searching
can be seen as a tool for learning, i.e. search tools can help users find needed information and
achievelearning goals orcan be a meaning-makingprocess insteadof simply being brief,quick
searchesfor shallow learning (Ghosh et al.,2018;Rieh et al., 2016). Online information searches
are an important way to acquire information to enhance one’s knowledge. Recent studies on
search-as-learning(SAL) recognize the significance ofidentifying users’learning needs as they
evolve in knowledge building during the sear ch process (Ghosh et al., 2018;Hoppe et al., 2018;
O’Brien et al., 2022;Skov and Lykke, 2020;Vakkari, 2016).
Here, we examine whether users of an online-museum system learn during the search
process and exhibit meaning-making behavior throughout their onl ine-resource exploration and
exploitation processes. Librarians play a critical role in creating environments that foster
meaningfu l and lasting lear ning in digita l archives (DA s). Following t he trend of open di gital
collectionsfor museums and libraries, our researchtarget, the National PalaceMuseum (NPM)
(https://www.npm.gov.tw/),the most importantand popularmuseum in Taiwan,has the world’s
largestcollection of Chineseart. During thecoronavirus disease2019 (COVID-19)pandemic, the
NPM saw an increase in user numbers from 3,402,712 visitors in 2015 to 9,167,708 in 2020. The
NPM not only cultivated excellent DA resources on the Internet, but also began to display
Taiwan’s richcultural assetsand make both of theseparameters searchable and available to the
public (Chen et al., 2002). Even if museums digitize their collections and make them public,
however, can users effectively access the data therein, and are they aware of what content is
availablein the resources?Accordingto Cheng (2012), the NPM is one ofthe initiatorsthat joined
the NationalDigital ArchivesProgramin Taiwan and severalcollections havebeen digitizedby
the NPM. The searching fields, metadata cross-linking and filtering are apparently core
functions of the DAs, which will influen ce the usability and accessible of the DAs.
In this context,we seek to better understand how theuser learning during the information
search process (ISP) by utilizing the NPM’s databaseof digitalcollections fromthe perspectiveof
online usersearch behavior. Furthermore, we can getimplications with respect to the design of
DAs in practice. To date, research on online museums has focused on evaluating system
usability and user characteristics and motivations for visiting digital museums (Falk, 2013;
Pallas and Economides, 2008;Walsh et al.,2020). By contrast, few studies examine users’SAL
processesin real-world situations to better understand the extentto which the system supports
learning in online searchesfor DAs (Rieh et al., 2014). Recently, learning is becoming a central
concern for museums as a whole; thus, we seek to understand how visitors utilize online museum
resources to accomplish their goals and understand whether th es ystem supports their evolving
information and learning needs during the search process. Vakkari (2016) hypothesizes how
evolving learning –i.e. the growth of knowledge –across search sessions is reflected in user
searchbehavior, includingsearch formulation,source selectionand interactionwith sources for
the task outcome. Accordingly, we hypothesize that changes in search behavior indicate
learning within sessions in the context of the DAs of the online museums. The following two
research questions guide thisexploratory study:
RQ1. What is the association between the learning criteria and the essay scores? How do
the variables of the learning criteria reflect the users’growth of knowledge as
shown in Vakkari’s (2016) study?
RQ2. What are the effects of types of learning task to users’search behaviors, e.g. search
actions and patterns when using DAs and consequently, how they influence users’
learning outcomes in terms of essays and learning criteria?
In this work, we conducted an exploratory-sequential mixed-methods approach using
simulated work task situations to collect empirical data. We sought to investigate how users
attend to search-related learning tasks using the search-centric NPM database in Taiwan.
Search-as-
learning in
digital archives
299
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