OPAC Changes Users Want

In the December, 2004 issue of Information Technology and Libraries Ed: broken link removed 2011, Holly Yu and Margo Young report that web searching is changing our user's expectation of how the OPAC works. Specifically, they report that users typically type two terms in the search box, have an average of two queries per session, don't use complex query syntax and don't want to view more than ten documents in a result list.

The article, entitled "The Impact of Web Search Engines on Subject Searching in OPAC" suggests some changes we can make to our OPAC interfaces that our users will appreciate:

1. Menu Sequence Matters: users are much more likely to choose the first option on a dropdown menu. Make sure you put the choice they prefer in that position.

2. Users don't understand what's in the catalog. Get that metasearch interface rolling!

3. Users don't know the difference between keywords and subject headings. Start users off with a keyword search. If you offer a subject heading search, make sure you specify "LC Subject Headings" and provide instruction about what that means.

4. User searches fail...a lot. If possible, devise a search interface that helps them succeed. Some ILS vendors are offering this now (Innovative's Advanced Keyword Search feature, for example). If your vendor doesn't have it yet, demand it. Provide spellcheck and some kind of mapping to your controlled vocabulary when possible.

There's lots more in the article. These are just some of my personal favorites. For more info, visit Holly Yu's website Ed: broken link removed 2011 where you can view several papers she's published on this topic.