Abstract
A transaction log analysis of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) OPAC was conducted to identify query and search failure patterns with the goal of identifying areas of improvement for the system. One semester's worth of OPAC transaction logs were obtained and from these, 641,991 queries were extracted and used for this work. Issues investigated included query length, frequency and type of search options and Boolean operators used as well as their relationships with search failure. Among other findings, results indicate that a majority of the queries were simple, with short query lengths and a low usage of Boolean operators. Failure analysis revealed that on average, users had an almost equal chance of obtaining no records or at least one record to a submitted query. We propose enhancements and suggest future areas of work to improve the users' search experience with the NTU OPAC.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1316-1329 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Information Processing and Management |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Information Systems
- Media Technology
- Computer Science Applications
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Library and Information Sciences
Keywords
- Failure analysis
- Information retrieval
- Online public access catalog
- Transaction log analysis