The role of readers’ literary preferences in predicting success in fiction search
| Pages | 317-332 |
| Published date | 26 August 2019 |
| Date | 26 August 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2019-0005 |
| Author | Pertti Vakkari,Anna Mikkonen |
| 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 |
The role of readers’literary
preferences in predicting success
in fiction search
Pertti Vakkari
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences,
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland, and
Anna Mikkonen
Häme University of Applied Sciences, Hämeenlinna, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to study what extent readers’socio-demographic characteristics,
literary preferences and search behavior predict success in fiction search in library catalogs.
Design/methodology/approach –In total, 80 readers searched for interesting novels in four differing
search tasks. Their search actions were recorded with a Morae Recorder. Pre- and post-questionnaires elicited
information about their background, literary preferences and search experience. Readers’literary preferences
were grouped into four orientations by a factor analysis. Linear regression analysis was applied for predicting
search success as measured by books’interest scores.
Findings –Most literary orientations contributed to search success, but in differing search tasks. The role of
result examination was greater compared to querying in contributing search success almost in each task.
The proportion of variance explained in books’interest scores varied between 5 (open-ended browsing) and
50 percent (analogy search).
Research limitations/implications –The distribution of participants was biased toward females, andthe
results are aggregated within search session, both reducing the variation of the phenomenon observed.
Originality/value –This study is one of the first to explore how readers’literary preferences and searching
are associated with finding interesting novels, i.e. search success, in library catalogs. The results expand and
support the findings in Mikkonen and Vakkari (2017) concerning associations between reader characteristics
and fiction search success.
Keywords User studies, Reading, Books, Modelling, Online catalogues, Interest criteria, Fiction search,
Search success
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
An interest in various aspects of fiction book search has gained some footing among studies
on information retrieval. This change reflects the calls for broadening the scope
of the research field to cover also casual leisure information searching in addition to factual,
work-related searching (Elsweiler et al., 2011). The object of retrieval broadens from
information objects with factual content to information objects with fictitious content. The
nature of activity producing information needs expands from instrumental to expressive,
too. An instrumental activity is a means to a goal, whereas an expressive activity is a goal as
such, i.e. an activity is valuable for its own sake (O’Connor, 1987).
Reading fiction is often considered as an end itself, pleasurable as such (Ross, 2001). The
differences mentioned above are reflected in the search behavior, in the nature of criteria for
selecting interesting books and consequently, in search tactics (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2017;
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 76 No. 1, 2020
pp. 317-332
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2019-0005
Received 15 January 2019
Revised 24 April 2019
Accepted 27 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
© Pertti Vakkari and Anna Mikkonen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is
published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,
distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial
purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this
licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
317
The role of
readers’
literary
preferences
Pejtersen, 1989; Ross, 2001; Vakkari and Pöntinen, 2015). While topicality is considered
typically the major criterion for retrieval effectiveness(Schamber, 1994), it is a poor indicator
of success in fiction search compared to other characteristics of novels like genre, plot or
literary style (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2016b; Pejtersen, 1989; Ross, 2001; Vakkari and
Pöntinen, 2015). The major search scenarios differ also between fiction and non-fiction
searching (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2016a; Pejtersen, 1989; Ross, 2001).
The studies on fiction search have dealt with visualization techniques for book search
(Thudt et al., 2012), readers’means of accessing fiction in the public library (Mikkonen and
Vakkari 2012; Saarinen and Vakkari, 2013) or in bookshops (Buchanan and McKay, 2011),
selecting fiction in library catalogs and other sources (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2016a;
Pejtersen, 1989; Vakkari and Pöntinen, 2015; Tang et al., 2014), relevance and interest
criteria in selecting fiction (Koolen et al., 2015; Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2016b) and reader
characteristics and fiction searching (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2017).
Studies on fiction book search do not typically differentiate between readers’literary
preferences as factors, which may influence search behavior (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2017).
As topicality is not a valid indicator for search success (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2016b;
Pejtersen, 1989; Vakkari and Pöntinen, 2015), it is essential to find out which characteristics
of literature readers prefer when looking for and selecting interesting novels. There are only
a few studies exploring readers’literary preferences and search behavior in electronic
(Mikkonen and Vakkari 2017) and traditional (Ross, 2001; Saarinen and Vakkari, 2013;
Spiller, 1980) library environment. There is a lack of studies about how literary preferences
are associated with fiction search behavior. It is likely, however, that readers with differing
interest profiles differ also in their search tactics, interest criteria for selecting novels
(Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2017; Pejtersen, 1989; Saarinen and Vakkari, 2013), and
consequently search success. If we can better reveal readers’interest profiles and their
associations to search behavior, we might be able to better serve their attempts to find
good reads.
We have studied earlier various aspectsoffictionbooksearchinlibrary
catalogs including how readers’literary preferences relate to the patterns of fiction
search. Literary preferences were divided into two categories and search behavior was
analyzed variable by variable in these two categories (Mikkonen and Vakkari, 2017). The
study at hand uses the same data set. It enriches our earlier findings by clustering readers’
literary preferences into four categories and by showing by linear regression analysis to
what extent each literary preference and other factors in the mod els predict separ ate and
jointly search success. Our contribution consists of providing a richer categorization of
literary preferences and multivariate models including literary preferences and
other factors predicting fiction search success. Information about the differences in
readers’preferences and consequent differences in search behavior could be used in
developing tools in library catalogs to better support varyingreader groups to find novels
to read.
The aim of this study is to explore how readers’literary preferences are associated
withfictionsearchbehaviorinlibrarycatalogs.Inparticular,theaimistoanalyze
to what extent readers’socio-demographic background, literary preferences and search
behavior predict the success of finding interesting novels for various search scenarios in
library catalogs.
Related research
Two types of studies are relevant in this context. Studies on reader characteristics, literary
preferences, in particular shed light on features, which may be associated to fiction search.
Studies on searching novels in library catalogs and libraries provide results on fiction
search and selection patterns for backing this study.
318
JD
76,1
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