Characterizing queries in cross-device OPAC search: a large-scale log study
| Pages | 482-497 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-06-2017-0130 |
| Date | 17 September 2018 |
| Published date | 17 September 2018 |
| Author | Dan Wu,Shaobo Liang,Renmin Bi |
Characterizing queries in
cross-device OPAC search: a
large-scale log study
Dan Wu, Shaobo Liang and Renmin Bi
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –The study focused on online public access catalog (OPAC) users’cross-device search behavior.
The purpose of this paper is to understand the characteristics of cross-device OPAC searches, and to identify
query reformulation (QR) patterns during device transitions.
Design/methodology/approach –The transaction log from a university library, spanning six months, was
used to conduct the quantitative analysis. The query vocabulary richness, which refers to the average
number of unique words each query contains in a search session, can evaluate query diversity, and contribute
to the analysis of QR.
Findings –The results show that PC-PC transition is the most important pattern of device transition.
The time interval of device transition was different to the time interval of transitions in web searches.
Short device transitions mainly occurred in daytime, and the number of transitions that occurred in less than
one minute was higher than on the web. Searches for Industry and Technology triggered the most device
transitions, and the users tended to choose the same search field. In addition, the authors made a detailed
analysis of the reasons for same-type device transitions and different-type device transitions. Furthermore,
the authors focused on the characteristics of adjacent QR patterns. The authors not only refined the concept of
cross-device to include the same-type device transition, but also summarized the characteristics of the
cross-device QR patterns, which can be used to predict post-switch queries.
Originality/value –This study extends research into cross-device interaction and cross-device search to the
domain of digital library research. The authors also introduced QR perspective on cross-device interaction
on OPAC.
Keywords User behaviour, Query reformulation, Cross-device search, Device transition, Library OPAC,
OPAC search
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Research on big data has become a hot topic in recent years in different disciplines, such
as how to make use of big data and improve internet services through the analysis of big
data. Big data has the characteristics of volume, velocity, variety, value and veracity.
The library has also launched a variety of mobile internet services for users. These
services generate a large amount of user behavior data. The analysis of the big data from
libraries can help researchers to discover the characteristics of users’behavior and to
improve the library services.
With the rapid development of mobile internet, increasing numbers of people are using
various devices such as mobile phones, tablets and wearables to access the web. We have
come into the multi-device world. The library online public access catalog (OPAC), as the
entry point for accessing library resources, is also searched by users with different devices.
In addition to searching directly on the OPAC website, there are many other ways to access
the library OPAC, especially with mobile devices. For instance, some libraries have a mobile
library application (APP) for mobiledevices, and in China, some librariesuse a popular instant
messaging APP called WeChat to provide access to the OPAC. Users faced with different
scenarios and search tasks may search more than one OPAC using a variety of devices.
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2018
pp. 482-497
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-06-2017-0130
Received 30 June 2017
Revised 30 September 2017
23 November 2017
Accepted 23 November 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
This work was supported by Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education in
China (No. 16YJA870009) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71673204).
482
LHT
36,3
Therefore, the l ibrary’s user behavior data also shows the characteristic of variety. In the
multi-deviceenvironment, the integration, mining andapplication of library datafrom various
devices will contribute to improve the information retrieval service and make full use of the
big data from the library.
Predictions about cross-device search tasks (Wang et al., 2013) and the devices
(Montañez et al., 2014) after device transition can enable search engines to proactively
retrieve device-appropriate content, such as provide thumbnail images of search results on a
mobile phone, and thus help people search more effectively in a multi-device environment.
The exploration of cross-device OPAC search can be compared with cross-device web
search to understand how OPAC systems can help users in their cross-device searches.
Research on cross-device searches should also consider the change of queries.
Query reformulation (QR) is an essential aspect of information-seeking behavior, reflecting
the process of constantly adjusting search tactics and clarifying information needs.
In cross-device searches, QR can also reflect the changes of users’search scenarios and the
impacts of devices on the query.
Consequently, our work focuses on understanding OPAC users’cross-device behaviors.
This work can enrich research of user study and help to understand the user’s online
information behavior in depth, as well as extend the research on cross-device interaction to
the domain of digital library research. Besides, this work can support our understanding of
a user’s continuous behavior resumed on different devices, and help libraries to make it
easier for users to move from one device to another during their searches. Furthermore, this
work can help readers to understand the difference between users’cross-device search
behavior in e-commerce and in an academic context and help libraries to improve the service
when users access an OPAC on different devices under different situations.
Thus, we mainly investigated the following research questions:
RQ1. What are the characteristics of cross-device OPAC search?
Although the users could perform many different interactions during OPAC search,
we mainly focused on users’searches across devices. After analyzing them, we further
investigated QR in cross-device OPAC searches and proposed the second research question:
RQ2. What are the patterns of QR in the process of cross-device OPAC search?
The main contributions of our study are: we described the specific characteristics of
cross-device OPAC search; we extended the research on cross-device interaction and
cross-device search to the domain of digital library research; and we introduced the QR
perspective into our research of cross-device interaction on OPAC.
Literature review
OPAC search
For internet users, general search engine (such as Google, Bing, etc.) have been widely
used and can meet users’information needs (Kumar, 2011). Yang and Hofmann (2011) also
investigated the advantages of OPAC, their results showed that 61 percent libraries had
only one to five advan ced features in Amer ica and Canada. For al l that, the informat ion
resource of the library is still an important choice for people to search for
information (Missingham et al., 2009). The OPAC log could help researchers to analyze
the searching methods (Kern-Simirenko, 1983).
The selection of a Boolean logic operator and the retrieval field (such as keywords, title,
authors, ISBN, etc.) reflect the users’strategies when they submit queries, which is also one
aspect of OPAC research. Dinet et al. (2004) divided the library users into three different
groups according to their information search ability, and they found that although all users
were prompted to use Boolean logic operators to formulate queries, only users with high
483
Cross-device
OPAC search
To continue reading
Request your trial