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Striking a Balance in Your Library Catalog: TMI vs. TLI

Karen Selden Metadata Services LibrarianUniversity of Colorado Law Library

PURPOSE (WHY?):

to understand how librarians perceive the

effectiveness of the PRIMARY PUBLIC

INTERFACE of their library catalogs

HOW? 10 question Qualtrics survey Quantitative and Qualitative

responses

WHERE? AALL lists: ALL-SIS; OBS-SIS; Open

Forum; PLLIP-SIS; TS-SIS Regional lists: CoALL; SWALL; WestPac

Facebook: OBS page and TSLAWCHATS

WHEN? April 1-15, 2015

WHAT? 128 responses

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Other: All areas (9 responses); Administration (6 responses); Director (5 responses); Reference/Research (3 responses);

Solo librarian (2 responses); Special collections; both TS & PS; etc.

In what area of the library do you work?

AVERAGE: Add ratings, then divide by total number of ratings

MEDIAN: the middle number in a sorted list of

numbers2 2 4 5 6 6 8

QUESTION 1:

When you perform a KEYWORDsearch, do you receive too few or

too many responses?

111 responses

78 comments

8=Median

● Keyword Searching is Too Broad and Sloppy● Discovery Layer Searches Return Too Many Results ● Experienced Searchers Fare Better Than

Novice Searchers● Keyword Searches Can Produce Both

TMI and TLI● Government Documents, Especially

Hearings, Can Obscure Results

QUESTION 1 COMMENTS:

QUESTION 2:

Overall, how satisfied are you with the search results from

your primary search box?

128 responses

71 comments

6=Median

● Discovery Layer Searches Return Too Many Results ● Poor Discovery Layer Relevancy Ranking ● Experienced Searchers Fare Better Than

Novice Searchers● Frustrating Known Item and Precision

Searching ● Frustrating Display of Results

QUESTION 2 COMMENTS:

QUESTION 3:

How USER-FRIENDLY is your library catalog from the PATRON perspective?

113 responses

78 comments

4=Median

● Offputting; Quirky

● Experienced Searchers Fare Better Than

Novice Searchers

● Lack of Precision in Result Lists

● Patrons Expect Google or Google-likeSearching

QUESTION 3 COMMENTS:

● Simplified is Not Necessarily Better

● Improve User Experience with:More Relevant Metadata;Better Relevancy Ranking;Better Display Options and Design

● Difficult to Get Patrons to Use the Catalog

QUESTION 3 COMMENTS (continued):

QUESTION 4:

Do search results give a BALANCE of print and electronic resources?

106 responses

78 comments

7=Median

● Depends Upon Library’s Collection

● Depends Upon Library’s Holdings in the Catalog

● Result Lists Skewed Toward Electronic Resources

● Lack of Access to Electronic Resources in Shared Catalogs

QUESTION 4 COMMENTS:

● Facets Help Sort Results

● Improve Relevance Ranking and Display Options

QUESTION 4 COMMENTS (continued):

QUESTION 5:

To what extent would you like your catalog to perform like

Google?

112 responses

84 comments

6= Median

● Like Google’s Format and Features:Clean, Simple Look;Images;Google Relevancy Ranking;Suggestions;Did You Mean…?

● Prefer More Precise and Granular Searches

“Google is always TMI!”

QUESTION 5 COMMENTS:

QUESTION 6:

What do you like best about the primary public interface of your

catalog?

98 responses

● Simple, Clean Look and Design

● Intuitive and Easy to Use

● Faceting and Filters to Edit and Refine Searches

QUESTION 6 COMMENTS:

● One Search Box

● Good Advanced Search Features

● Clearly Shows Resource Location and Availability

QUESTION 6 COMMENTS (continued):

● Customizable Displays

● “It Provides Me With Job Security”

● Very Little or NOTHING!

QUESTION 6 COMMENTS (continued):

QUESTION 7:

What improvements would you like to see in the primary public

interface of your catalog?

89 responses

● Better Limiting, Filtering and Faceting Options

● Better Known Item and Precision Searching Features

● Better or Customizable Relevancy Ranking

QUESTION 7 COMMENTS:

● Cleaner and Better Display of Results

● Cleaner and More Intuitive Look and Design

● More, and More Advanced, Search Options

QUESTION 7 COMMENTS (continued):

● (More) Customization Options for Display and Design

● Spell-check or “Did You Mean…” Typo Feature

● None

QUESTION 7 COMMENTS (continued):

Which ILS do you use?

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Other: EOS (6 answers); Locally created (2 answers); Inmagic Genie; Serials Solutions; Sirsi Symphony; both Summon & VuFind; etc.

Which discovery platform do you use?

Does your catalog include MARC records for databases?

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97 respondents

For which of the following databases does your catalog contain MARC

records?

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Striking a Balance in Your Library Catalog: TMI vs. TLI

Jane ThompsonAssociate Director for Faculty Services and Research, University of Colorado Law Library

Getting your customers to use it!

The Biggest Challenge with a Library Catalog or Discovery Layer:

It depends on the audience….

Novice/Infrequent Users

Expert/Repeat Users

What Is TLI or TMI in a Library Catalog

Information buried in the text of books

Information in conference proceedings and institutional repositories

Information in Law databases: WestlawNext, LexisAdvance, Bloomberg Law, HeinOnline, etc.

TLI: I can’t find what I need….

Government Documents (e.g., ProQuest Congressional)

Microform Formats Newspaper Articles Dissertations and Theses Journal Articles and Book Reviews Digital Archives Course Reserves and Exams Research Guides

TMI: Are These Frustrating or Helpful in a Library Catalog or Discovery Layer?

KW: water rights

Results: Reference book, journal article, Senate hearing, Lexis e-book, CRS report, microform bill

Library Catalogs/Discovery Layers Keyword vs. Controlled

Vocabulary Searching Relevance vs. Date Sorting Faceted Navigation

Other Databases to Know Google Books, Google Scholar,

HeinOnline, JSTOR, and SSRN

Student Research Assistant Instruction

Search query issues

Result display issues

Highly frustrating for expert/repeat users!!

TMI in Known-Item Searches = one-half of ALL queries

Results: 102 entries (3 are titled Water Rights)

TI: water rights

Record-per-format @ Yale Law (per Scott Matheson)

MORRIS

Books

Reprint

Micro

19th c. legal

treatises

Hein

MOML

LLMC digital

n~ 15,000

ONE Record to Rule Them ALL!: print, WL, Checkpoint

Balance: Staff Time vs. User Needs

Search vs. Research: Can Your Catalog Be All Things to All People?

According to a 2009 study by Whirlpool, 80 percent of dishwasher owners predominantly select the normal cycle.

The Secret Life of Your Dishwasher (Real Simple.com)

How do we force the most relevant results to the top?

KW: “adverse possession” Books and Encyclopedias

KW: “national security” Government Documents

KW: “renewable energy” Journal Articles

“Auto Wash” mode for Catalogs/Discovery?

Consistent format coding so facets work

Suppress/eliminate duplicate microform

Consider a “scope” for congressional information

Suppress duplicate records in a merged catalog but don’t delete them

“Did You Mean?”, VPN reminders, etc.

Continual feedback loop: experiment, adapt, move on

A Few Best Practices for Catalogs/Discovery layers

Early beta of Wise Law Library discovery layer

Encyclopedia backgrounder

Recommended database

Scope for gov’t documents

TMI: Don’t forget catalog design principles!Aaron Schmidt – “Catalog by Design,” Library Journal, Feb. 6, 2013