Digital Libraries and Fiction Book Search:
a Study of Readers, Search Behaviors and
Book Selection
Anna Mikkonen
Doctoral Student, University of Tampere
eRemembrance or eOblivion?
23-24 November, 2015
Introduction
•
•
Research interest towards casual-leisure information situations has
increased.
Fiction search is an essential part of casual-leisure search:
– It is not triggered by an explicit information need to be solved or a task to be
completed.
– It begins often with a serendipitous need to find "just good books to read“.
•
Fiction is increasingly searched for and accessed in digital libraries.
– Users with varied reading preferences and search competencies.
•
•
Digital libraries have been actively developed and enriched to meet the
needs of diverse reader groups.
Little is known about
– Fiction searching in digital libraries.
– The actual selection criteria for novels applied by fiction readers in digital
libraries.
•
An understanding of fiction readers' search behavior in digital libraries
is essential
– For evaluating user performance in the fiction search.
– For creating functioning interfaces for fiction.
Purpose of the study
• Provide information on
a) How readers search for fiction using an enriched library catalog
compared to a traditional library catalog.
b) The search actions that predict the finding of very interesting
novels compared to less interesting novels.
c) How fiction readers with varied reading preferences are
selecting interesting novels in different search scenarios.
d) Fiction readers’ interest criteria for novels in digital libraries.
A list of dissertation publications.
Mikkonen, A. & Vakkari, P.
I
•Readers’ Search Strategies for Accessing Books in Public Libraries.
•Proceedings of IiIX’12.
II
• Finding Fiction: Search Moves and Success in Two Online Catalogs.
• Accepted for publication in LISR 1/16
III
• Books' Interest Grading and Fiction Readers' Search Actions During Query
Reformulation Intervals.
• Proceedings of JCDL’15.
IV
•Reader Characteristics, Behavior and Success in Fiction Book Search.
•Submitted for review.
V
•Readers' Interest Criteria in Fiction Book Search in Digital Libraries.
•Submitted for review.
Research questions
II Finding Fiction: Search Moves and Success in Two Online Catalogs
• RQ1. Which are the search moves applied in different types of search scenarios for finding fiction?
• RQ2. Are there differences in search moves between different types of catalogs?
• RQ3. Are there differences in search moves between different types of search tasks?
III Books' Interest Grading and Fiction Readers' Search Actions During Query Reformulation Intervals
• RQ 1. Do the search actions during successful and unsuccessful QRIs differ
Between an enriched catalog compared to a traditional catalog?
Between browsing tasks?
• RQ 2. Are the search actions during QRIs associated to books' interest grading in browsing tasks? If yes, how?
IV Reader Characteristics, Behavior and Success in Fiction Book Search
• RQ 1. Is there an association between reader characteristics and search actions in different search tasks? If yes,
how?
• RQ 2. Is there an association between reader characteristics, search actions and search success in different
search tasks? If yes, how?
• RQ 3. Is there an association between reader characteristics and the type of queries in different search tasks? If
yes, how?
• RQ 4. Which are the typical search tactics applied in fiction searching?
V Readers' interest criteria in fiction book search in digital libraries
• RQ1. What kind of interest criteria readers apply in selecting novels in fiction search?
• RQ 2. Do the readers’ interest criteria for novels vary between different search scenarios? If yes, how?
• RQ 3. Do the applied between a traditional library catalog compared with an enriched library catalog? If yes,
how?
• RQ 4. Are there differences in the applied interest criteria between rejected and selected novels?
Data
• 80 adult participants
–
–
–
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18 % male, 82 % female.
Age distribution 18-78.
Genuine fiction readers.
Recruited in public libraries, in fiction reading groups and in
Finland’s Open University’s writing and literature classes.
– The Snowball sampling method and a newspaper advertisement
were used.
– Participants were randomized into control and test groups.
– Participants’ experience in using online catalogs , reading
activity or reading preferences did not significantly differ between
control and test groups.
5 search scenarios
“A friend of yours recommends you to familiarize yourself with
Known author search the novels of Olli Jalonen. Find Olli Jalonen’s novels and choose
two novels which are of interest to you.”
Topical search
“Find three novels about upper class life in the 19th century.”
Open ended
browsing
“Find three novels that interest you which you would like to
read.”
Search by analogy
“Think of and mention one novel that you have read and found
interesting recently. Now search for three similarly interesting
novels as the one you mentioned.”
Vacation reading
”Search for three entertaining novels for vacation reading.”
The catalogs used
• A traditional baseline catalog Satakirjastot.
• An enriched test catalog BookSampo.
• Each participant completed the tasks either on Sata or
Sampo.
• The front page of Sampo offers a variety of access
points to the collection:
– Basic search, book cover images, other users’ virtual
bookshelves, subject term cloud, book reviews etc.
• Compared to the baseline catalog Sata, Sampo provides
fiction metadata that is more varied and accounts for
different access points to literature.
Baseline Satakirjastot
Test catalog BookSampo
Mixed method data analysis
Recorded search logs
A pre-questionnaire
Search queries
Interviews and
conversations
• Manual coding of variables measuring the search behaviors.
• Statistical analysis for analyzing the associations of search
behaviors and search success between search tasks and catalogs.
• Eliciting common patterns for reading preferences and creating
two groups of fiction readers.
• Statistical analysis for comparing the search behaviors and search
success between reader groups
• Qualitative content analysis for categorizing the search queries in
different categories.
• Statistical data analysis for comparing the search queries between
the reader groups.
• Qualitative content analysis.
• For examining fiction readers' interpretations of the influential
factors in fiction book selection.
Major findings
•
•
•
Search success was equal in both catalogs.
Significant differences were found in search behaviors between catalogs.
More effort was required in a traditional catalog Sata to reach equivalent
search success than in an enriched catalog Sampo.
•
In Sata, a typical search strategy for interesting titles was to issue queries
carefully and devote more attention to search results instead of book pages.
In Sata an unsuccessful search pattern was detected
– At the beginning of each task searchers tended to end up going in
circles,
– Much time was devoted to selecting suitable entry terms together with a
quick glance over the results before issuing a subsequent query.
– When glancing at the results, they were noticed unsatisfactory, book
pages were not entered and no book selections were made.
•
•
In Sampo, time devoted to exploring catalog's multiple entry points together
with attention to the enriched result list was a common and successful
search approach.
Major findings
• Browsing task type was associated to readers' document
viewing behavior.
• Browsing for topical novels resembled the retrieving of
topically relevant non-fiction documents.
– The association of dwell time on book pages and document value
was found to be non-linear
• Most effort was required to select somewhat interesting novels.
• When browsing for good books, the association of dwell time
on book pages and document value was found to be linear
– Most effort in terms of dwell time was required to assess the most
interesting cases.
 If dwell time on book pages is considered as relevance
feedback, it should be interpreted with understanding of the
search situation, especially the task type.
Major findings
• Two fiction reader groups were elicited
– The entertained and the aesthetic-utilitarian readers.
• Different preference patterns for fiction books were associated to
readers' search behavior.
• Four search tactics for fiction books in digital libraries were
presented
1. Focused querying
2. Thematic browsing
3. Similarity based querying
4. Similarity based browsing by proxy.
• The search scenario determined the use of the identified search
tactics.
• Depending on the system used, the emphasis in identifying
interesting titles was on either searchers' literary knowledge or the
system's support.
Major findings
• A categorization of interest criteria for novels was elicited.
– Familiarity, Bibliographic information, Content, Engagement, Sociocultural.
• Readers’ prior literary knowledge and novel’s title had a major role in
book selection.
• Book selection in digital libraries was found to be highly a context
related process,
– A combination of readers’ search capacities, “behind the eyes” knowledge,
personal and affective factors and a well-functioning interaction with a
system being used resulted in a successful book selection.
• The rejection of a novel turned out to be a quick and simple process
where a single metadata element determined a book to be rejected.
• Readers applied the identified interest criteria in a flexible and
multiphase way depending on the search task and phase.
• Depending on the catalog used, the emphasis on selecting
interesting titles was on
– Searchers' literary knowledge and bibliographic information.
– Content description and engagement in reading.
Conclusions
• The study demonstrated the basic characteristics of
fiction book search in various search scenarios in digital
libraries.
• The study revealed that fiction readers' search behaviors
in a traditional catalog and an enriched catalog differ but
may result in equal success.
• Providing multiple appealing entry points for fiction
collections together with an enriched result list may
result in successful, serendipitous discoveries.
• Visual and social navigational tools may trigger ideas for
the search, and consequently support the discovering of
interesting novels.
Conclusions
• A profound understanding of readers' book selection
behavior in digital libraries is vital as fiction is
increasingly accessed in digital libraries.
• Designing well-functioning and user-friendly interfaces
for fiction readers with varied search skills and literary
interests requires both in-depth qualitative and large
scale evaluative user studies.
• The results of this study
– Give a good starting point for further examination of user
behavior in digital libraries
– Are a significant step toward a comprehensive understanding of
readers’ book search and selection behaviors in digital
environments.
• Thank you for your interest.
• Questions and comments are very welcome!
• A special thanks to my supervisor professor Pertti Vakkari,
professor Eero Sormunen, Memornet coordinator Samuel
Ranta, the members of research group FIRE and the students
of Memornet for your valuable feedpack!
• anna.mikkonen@uta.fi